July 10-11, 2021

Saturday, while cloudy with a few raindrops to start, was full of wild animals. We saw minke whales on both trips as we headed to and from Jeffreys Ledge. The morning trip also provided a sighting of an ocean sunfish. On Saturday morning at least eight humpback whales were sighted.

Can you find the dolphin swimming nearby this whale?

Diving humpback

During the afternoon, at least 10 humpback whales were sighted. Other spouts were seen out in the distance we just didn't have time to check them all out on both of our trips. Whales for the day included Jawa, Chromosome, Spoon, Tripod, Galapagos, Sword, Halfmoon, Nine and her 2021 calf, Wigwam, Badge and Sedge.

Chromosome

Even the birds were surprising us. We saw a handful of shearwaters, flying puffins on each trip and a dovekie in the morning!

Shearwaters

A dovekie!

Unfortunately, even though there was life all around us, one of our sightings hit hard. Nine's calf is looking unhealthy. For a whale that is less than a year old, its body is emaciated and already has signs of a vessel strike. We love to see whales but what we find even more important is to be aware of oddities of sightings. Something 'off' or abnormal and document those findings so that information can be shared with the greater research community. So that's what we did. We documented what we could in as short as an amount of time as possible to avoid unnecessary stress to a potentially already distressed individual. Yes, we wish all sightings to be beautiful and healthy and one day I hope that happens. But until that day comes we will instead focus on the whale's current status, for each and every individual we are fortunate to come across.

On Monday morning, in calm pristine conditions, our first whale sighting of the day was Nine and her 2021 calf. Good news: the calf had plenty of energy as it was breaching numerous times. Knowing the status of this whale, we kept our distance and headed away from the pair, even while breaching. While some may say, why would anyone leave a breaching whale(?), that's exactly what we did. Let these whales be whales and give them plenty of space in hopes the calf can have the strength to continue living life. There were plenty of other whales to explore and enjoy, at the safety of them all, of course!

Morning sightings included Wigwam, Mogul and Clamp to name a few. In the afternoon, whales were in all directions surfacing and diving around us. Sightings of Wigwam and Clamp continued along with Pinball, Quill, Spoon and Badge.

Clamp