With no trips on Monday it had been three days since being on the water when we headed back offshore Tuesday morning. Multiple days with strong winds can stir up the ocean, especially food(!), so wondering where to look first was of high priority. Our anxiousness subsided quickly when our Blue Ocean Society summer intern spotted our first whale of the trip. Thanks Rachel!
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First whale of the day
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Ravine the humpback whale was still spending time on Jeffreys Ledge. After some great looks at this whale we took advantage of the time to do some more searching. This effort paid off immensely as we came across a group of five additional humpback whales associated with a group of 20-30 Atlantic white-sided dolphins.
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Humpback whales
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Most of these whales were familiar tails and a few still need to be identified. Clipper, Jabiru and Quote were among the group.
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Jabiru and a dolphin
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On our travels home we briefly checked out an ocean sunfish, which breached(!), sighting a total of four by the time we were back to the dock.
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Breaching ocean sunfish!
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On Tuesday afternoon we saw a total of eight humpback whales. Valley and her calf were seen slowly moving through the area.
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Valley and her 2020 calf
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Not far from this pair was a group of five humpback whales consisting of Nile, Clipper, Quote and Jabiru. Ravine even made a quick appearance as we departed the area.
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Nile
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A few in our afternoon group
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Wednesday felt like "whale Wednesday." There were plenty of whales and even other marine life to be seen. On the morning trip 6 humpback whales, 10 ocean sunfish, a blue shark (congrats intern Sarah for seeing it!), and a pod of 200 Atlantic white-sided dolphins were sighted. So much wildlife to watch! Most of the humpback whales were napping and included Ravine, Milkyway, Valley and her calf, Nile and Quote.
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Pair of humpback whales
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| Valley and her calf |
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Whales!
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Sunfish seemed to be littering the ocean, the only kind of litter we like to see! And our dolphin pod was by far the largest pod we have seen all season.
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| First of many ocean sunfish |
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Atlantic white-sided dolphins!
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Dolphin surfacing
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On the afternoon trip we were once again watching whales as associations continued to blend throughout the day. We had all the same ones as seen in the morning with a few being a bit more wiggly than others.
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Flipper slapping
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Nile lobtailing
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Valley and her calf
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We also had a quick visitor of a gray seal swim near the boat and an ocean sunfish the wrap up the day.
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Gray seal
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| Ocean sunfish |
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