Today’s trips couldn’t have been more different from each
other.
The morning trip started with grey skies, a big swell from
yesterday’s storms, and even a few light sprinkles of rain. Our first sighting was of a small blue shark.
Unfortunately, cloudy days make it more difficult to see into the water, and
blue sharks are notoriously skittish, so our viewing opportunity was brief. Further
along, our mate Matt spotted a whale behind the boat. We turned around and
found the humpback whale named Clamp!
She has been one of our regulars lately, and we were happy to see that
she was still in the area.
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| a bit of marine debris to the right of Clamp |
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| That bit of debris was a Coke bottle! If she had been feeding here, she may |
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| Clamp |
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| Clamp diving |
We watched Clamp for a bit and then got a report of some
more whales to our south. There, we
found three humpback whales. Two were traveling together, and the third was
close. This group was slowly moving WSW and pretty laid back. Quote, who has
been seen occasionally in our area, was hanging just outside the pair, which
included Nile and Scylla. Nile had been seen a while back off the mouth of the
Merrimack River, and she has been reported to be spending much of her time with
Scylla since the start of our season (May/June). Long-term associations of humpbacks
are not unheard of but are somewhat rare.
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| Nile |
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| Quote's cool asymmetrical tail! |
A fourth humpback was passing through the area and we ended up catching up to it on our trek home! Chromosome was doing some surface traveling northward!
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| Chromosome diving |
Also on our way home, we had quick glimpses of a minke whale and some
harbor porpoises, and then a great look at an ocean sunfish!!
This afternoon, the rain clouds moved on, and we ventured
out on fairly calm seas. We found Clamp once again and stayed with her for a
short time before another whale watch boat arrived. We don’t like to have more
than one boat on a whale whenever possible, so we decided to continue on to see
what else was in the area.
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| Clamp |
Our intern Tiffany spotted a pod of Atlantic white-sided
dolphins! This pod was a mellow group of
around 50 animals and several calves! Cute! We shut the boat down several times
and let the dolphins check us out. Without the noise of the engines, we could truly
enjoy the serene moments with these wild animals. Just listening to their breaths
made me wish I had a recording of them to listen to during my daily
meditations!
As a charter fishing boat approached, they asked if they could
show their passengers the dolphins. We said, “of course”, and took the
opportunity to go back to look for Clamp again. We found her in the same area,
and this time she was feeding! We saw clouds of bubbles at the surface, which
she blew to help corral her prey. Cool!
We had a little time left and decided to explore another
area that hadn’t been covered in a while.
Recon missions are sometimes successful, and sometimes not so much. This
mission was one of the not so much ones. Although we didn’t find any more
whales, we enjoyed more time on the water as the sun broke through the clouds
and the seas flattened out. We cruised home, passing through the Isles of
Shoals for some extra sightseeing! A couple of harbor seals were briefly
spotted, and a minke whale was seen in the distance.
Great day on the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine!
Was on the afternoon trip. Heading down again next week.
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