October 3-4, 2020

The weather was PERFECT on Saturday. The horizon was so crisp and clear. There was barely a breath of wind so the surface of the ocean was glass-like most of the day. Conditions were on our side and we were excited to get offshore. We found multiple blue sharks and two ocean sunfish.

Subsurface ocean sunfish

However, we couldn't find a single whale. Not one. Well that was clearly not what we were hoping for. We thank our passengers for joining us and look forward to seeing you again in the future for whale activity! 

Sunday, the conditions were just as gorgeous. Calm seas and a clean horizon. As we headed out towards Jeffreys Ledge we saw two minke whales. Out on the ledge we saw two fin whales.

Such calms seas!

While watching one fin whale, first identified by Blue Ocean Society researchers in 2010, out of the blue a second fin whale surfaced!

Fin whale

We also saw the U.S. Air Force cruise down the coast, an added bonus, before finding an ocean sunfish.

C-130's headed our way!

Ocean sunfish

Can't believe we are down to our last week of the 2020 whale watching season. Fingers crossed the weather allows for a few more trips!

October 1-2, 2020

Thursday, October 1, we took a small group of students out to find some whales!  After searching high and low, we ended up not finding a single whale! Where did they go?  If only we knew....

Friday, October 2, a little luck (as well as a hot report from a fishing boat) helped us out. We got to the location where the report of 2 whales came from and didn't see anything, but the captain of the fishing boat said they appeared to be heading north. So we changed course and began to track them. Eventually, 8 miles later, we found a pair of humpback whales zooming to the north! Soon after we found them, they changed course and slowed down allowing us some nice views as well as some ID shots. Our travelling whales were known as Decimal and Tongs, both new whales to our area this season! 

Two whales under the boat!

Two humpback whales

Humpback whale diving

Also in passing, we spotted a grey seal and a harbor seal as well as hundreds of great shearwaters, a northern fulmar, a pomerine jaeger, and an immature king eider (Thanks, Steve!).