Whales are wild animals and while we anticipate their presence in our area every day we leave the harbor to the unknown. The unknown of what we might see, what species might be around, what behaviors the whales have in store for us. The only known is to expect the unexpected. Whales move (and they do!) so while a few have consistently been in our area, that definitely does not mean they are just waiting for us in the same spot they were the day, the hour, or even just minutes before! We are so fortunate to have these wild creatures spending time off the coast and our trips continue to provide some incredible memories. On Saturday morning we attempted to check out two minke whales we spotted, spent time with two different fin whales and then wrapped up the day with two humpback whales: Pinball and her 2019 calf.
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| Fin whale |
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| Pinball |
On the afternoon trip we checked out some different areas and ended up seeing six humpback whales and a pair of fin whales. All of the humpback whales we spotted were actively feeding at the surface. Sometimes they were independent of each other and other times sighted in pairs and even a trio. These whales included Zorro, Clamp, Nike, Spoon and Patches.
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| Lunge-feeding humpback whale right next to the boat! (Our engines were off as this whale surfaced and swam past us) |
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| Birds and whales taking advantage of the plentiful food |
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| Pair of humpback whales feeding |
On Sunday, the ocean was wavy from the wind which steadily remained as the day worn on. The morning trip brought 10 fin whales and two humpback whale sightings. Most of the fin whales were in pairs, but staying under the water longer than hoped, and darting around in every which direction. A few of these massive mammals were lunge feeding charging through the waves with such ease.
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| Tails of two fin whales post lunge feeding! |
We also spent time with humpback whales Zorro and Patches.
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| Zorro near the Isles of Shoals |
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| Zorro mid flipper slapping. Note the tip of its flipper is missing a chunk; yikes! |
To our surprise we even witnessed a few breaches by Patches at the end of the trip.
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| Patches head breaching |
On top of all the whale activity, we also had a grand slam of shearwaters: Great, Sooty, Cory's and Manx! There was even a jaeger that flew by.
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| Great shearwaters |
The wind persisted into the afternoon and with that the waves also continued. We first came across Zorro the humpback whale.
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| Zorro |
While watching this whale, out of the blue, this whale came out of the blue! Zorro breached only once but if you were looking in the right place, at the right time, it was quite the sight. A breach on both trips; wow. We also saw an ocean sunfish, harbor seal and a minke whale.
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| Ocean sunfish |
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| Harbor seal |
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