Wednesday, August 29, 2018

What a beautiful day offshore!  We passed by a harbor seal and some harbor porpoises on our way out to our first sighting. This was a humpback whale who was just lounging around and never lifted its tail. Still not sure who that one is at the moment but we can likely match up the dorsal fin if it has been around and identified before.  Further out, we found another dozen humpback whales, some minke whales and a pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins!  Although most of the humpbacks were staying down for 10-12 minutes, there were enough all around us for us to be almost always watching whales, either close by or in the near-distance!  

Spoon

Spoon and her calf were hanging out with Jabiru yet again, and at one point, A-plus and Chablis joined them!  Geometry was around as well as another single whale I haven’t identified yet but know we’ve seen earlier this season.  

Humpback tail

Geometry

Then, much to our surprise, we found Owl, one of Blue Ocean’s adoptable whales! This is the first time all season we have seen Owl, although we had reports of her off of Bar Harbor recently.  Glad she’s back in the neighborhood!   

OWL!

Continuing on, we found another 4 humpbacks together: churn, Spar, Partition and Spell!   

Fantastic Day! Happy birthday to Oliver and Karen!!

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Each day, marine life continues to leave us in awe. Recently, there has been so much to look at and so many memorable moments. Having the opportunity to watch wildlife in their natural habitat is an impressive day and we are so fortunate to see even the smallest glimpse into the lives of these mammals. Today we saw a pod of 12-15 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, five minke whales and eight humpback whales.

Humpback whale

Our dolphins came and went throughout the trip, becoming associated with their larger baleen "cousins" as we spent time offshore.

Dolphin

Dolphin dorsal fin just behind a humpback whale tail

Minke whales were popping up all around us. Our humpback whales were converging with each other at times.

Spoon's flipper in the air as her calf naps nearby at the surface

Sprinkles' flipper

We had moments of watching pairs, trios, a group of four and at one point, before our very eyes, we saw six humpback whales group up together! Suddenly, this group was side by side one another, many of them flipper-slapping all the while having our pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins in the mix. Wow. What a sight.

Humpback whales converging together while a dolphin swim towards them in the foreground

Atlantic white-sided dolphins swimming past us

Lob-tailing whale next to a flipper-slapping whale

We were able to identify all the humpback whales we saw today which included Geometry, Spoon, Spoon's 2018 calf, Solo, Sprinkles, Jabiru, Spar and Toboggan.

Spoon and her calf simultaneously flipper-slapping

Monday, August 27, 2018

Sea conditions were stunning today so not only was seeing wildlife perfection, the viewing of all that wildlife was equally as fantastic. On our way offshore we found a pod of 60-70 Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

This nursery pod was so mellow allowing for some beautiful looks at these toothed-whales.

Glass-like ocean!

More dolphins!

Offshore we saw at least 8 minke whales, a fin whale, 11 humpback whales and a of couple harbor seals.

Seal

A group of five humpback whales were napping at the surface together, another pair was moving around in sync and other individuals surfaced here and there.

Four (out of five) humpback whales

Low head-breach from a humpback whale

Pair of whales diving

Identified whales included Spar, Partition, Toboggan, Lava, Churn, Geometry, Fan, Victim and Ravine.

Fan diving

On our travels home we spotted plenty of harbor porpoise making for quite the variety of marine life today!

Harbor porpoise

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Activity here, there and everywhere today! Both trips were incredible. This morning we saw two pods of Atlantic white-sided dolphins (a pod of 30-35 and a second pod of 30-40), four minke whales, 10 humpback whales and our first pod of common dolphins for the season (uncommonly spotted in our area)!

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

A pod of common dolphins!!!

Common dolphins!

Jabiru and Spoon

Most of our humpback whales were resting but upon getting ready to depart the whales really kicked things into high gear.

Two napping humpback whales

Breaching was happening near the boat, out in the distance, flippers were in the air, there was something to look at on either side of the boat! Known whales included Spoon, her calf, Jabiru, Geometry, Fan, Lava, Partition, Spar, Victim and Ravine.

Partition

Spoon's calf breaching (above and below)

Flipper-slapping

As if this morning wasn't impressive enough, the afternoon continued to hold the bar high. We saw 11 humpback whales and three minke whales. Again, whales were being active by breaching, lob-tailing, tail-breaching, flipper-slapping all by multiple whales.                                                      

Massive tail-breach

Chablis lob-tailing

We are still working on identifying all our individuals but we spent time with Spoon, her calf, Jabiru, Lava, Geometry, Chablis, Toboggan, Victim and Ravine.

Spoon's calf breaching

Spoon's calf continuing to breach

Chablis tail-breaching

Ravine and Victim

Even during our time offshore the whales were changing their movements and their behaviors. Tomorrow is a new day with unknown adventures and whatever wildlife has in store for us we will eagerly await.

Saturday, August 25, 2018

This morning our sightings started with a great group of a mellow moving pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. We got some fantastic looks at these whales before continuing along offshore.

Atlantic white-sided dolphins (above and below)

Dolphin

We also had a total of three minke whales and five humpback whales. This morning we documented Spoon and her calf in association with Jabiru while a couple of other individuals could be seen out in the distance.

Spoon and Jabiru

Spoon

This afternoon we again saw five humpback whales in addition to five minke whales. This time however, we initially spotted Spoon and her calf alone but soon enough Geometry became associated with the pair.

Spoon and her calf

Geometry

We also briefly watched Jabiru and Patches moving around independently of each other, as a sporadic breach from one whale or another occurred while in the area. It is amazing how bonds between whales can unite and dissolve in such a short period of time. During our travels home, a minke whale breached too(!) only a couple miles from home. Wildlife keeps us on our toes from the moment we leave the harbor until the moment we return!

Whale tail

Friday, August 24, 2018

Friday morning we started our trip off with a huge pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! At least 200 were all around us. We have definitely lucked out recently with dolphin sightings. In a typical year, we only see them on 20-25% of trips!  Recently, they have been nearly a daily occurrence.   (Of course, now that I said that, we probably won’t see any more for the rest of the season…)  

 

Soon after, we spotted a blow in the distance. As soon as we got close to the whale creating that blow, it jumped out of the water repeatedly. Then another whale jumped! This one was a calf! Yet another humpback surfaced as well. Our Tremendous Trio was still in the area! Spoon, her calf, and Jabiru!  

 More dolphins were seen milling around the area as were a few minke whales!  Nearby, two more humpbacks were spotted, Geometry and Fan! 

Yet a few more minke whales and even some harbor porpoises were seen on our trip home.

This afternoon, we checked out an area just north of where we had whales in the morning. If we don’t search around, we’ll never know what else might be swimming through. Well, we didn’t find much there. So we headed back to where we had been.  Before we got there, our new deckhand, Lauri, spotted our first whales!  These were humpback whales named Victim and Ravine- both females.  

A minke passed by and several more minke whales were seen during the trip. We saw some breaching in the distance and eventually motored over there to find the Tremendous Trio yet again! 

Spoon, calf and Jabiru under the boat!

But this time Jabiru was visiting with some of the other whales in the neighborhood. She was seen with Geometry briefly, and then later joined up with Victim and Ravine!  

Jabiru

Before she took off with her new friends, she tail-breached and tail lobbed a few times!  Thanks for the excitement, Jabiru!