This morning conditions were pristine. No wind, flat seas and incredible visibility made spotting whale activity as perfect as possible. Any disturbance on the calm ocean was almost always some sort of marine life and our sightings reflected that. This morning we saw 11 minke whales, 20 harbor seals, TWO pods of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, totaling 125+ dolphins, and Comet the fin whale! Phew, that's a lot of life! The trip started inshore of the Isles of Shoals with a pod of ~75 dolphins milling about.
 |
| Dolphins inside the Shoals! |
 |
| Atlantic white-sided dolphins |
After some great time with these toothed whales we traveled further offshore constantly passing by harbor seals and checking out many of the minke whales we saw around us.
 |
| Minke whale |
 |
| Two harbor seals checking us out! |
We also found another pod of dolphins, approximately 40-50 in this group, again in perfect ocean conditions!
 |
| Whales from our second group of dolphins! |
 |
| Calm seas make for great dolphin watching (above and below)! |
After that our awesome passengers spotted another disturbance at the surface. A fin whale suddenly moved into the area. This whale is a familiar one and a
Blue Ocean Society adoptable whale. We had our first sighting of Comet this season! What a fantastic find!
 |
| Fin whale |
 |
| The sleek body of a fin whale barely makes a ripple at the surface |
 |
| So excited to see Comet return to the area for the first time all season! |
This afternoon the breeze kicked up a notch and we watched a pod of ~100 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, a minke whale and 2 humpback whales! The dolphins were zipping through the water, traveling at a decent rate through the wind and waves.
 |
| Afternoon sighting of Atlantic white-sided dolphin cruising through the water! |
 |
| Dolphin! |
 |
| Dolphins can speed through the waves creating quite the amount of white water! |
During our searching efforts after leaving the dolphins we found a couple of spouts that were from a pair of humpback whales. Jabiru and Spoon are still spending time in the area! What a great way to wrap up a successful day in the Gulf of Maine.
 |
| Whale tail |
 |
| Spoon and Jabiru |
 |
| Humpback whale spout |
No comments:
Post a Comment