Yesterday we were treated to two fantastic trips! Our morning trip was kicked off with a very mellow group of around 100 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, which actually led us to encounter a basking shark! This shark was swimming forward with it's mouth wide open, hopefully capturing lots of plankton.
Atlantic white-sided dolphins
Basking Shark
Not long after continuing along we came across our first pair of fin whales for the morning. These whales were the first of SEVEN fin whales we encountered throughout our trip!
Fin whale pair
At the southernmost point of our journey, we encountered four different humpback whales. First getting to spend some time with Satula as he did some travelling through the area, before happening across Clamp and her 2024 calf! While Clamp was very busy searching for schools of fish down beneath the surface, we got to turn our engines off and spend some time with her new calf as it circled around our boat before ultimately meeting back up with its mother.
Clamp showing off her tail flick!
Clamp's '24 Calf passing us by
On our way back towards Rye Harbor we got a quick look at a humpback known as GOM 1827, yet another basking shark, and even our first ocean sunfish of the season!
Our afternoon trip took us straight out to the southern tip of Jeffrey's Ledge with no distractions. Once there however, the action didn't let up. The next several hours were spent travelling between eight different humpback whales, almost all of whom were feeding beneath the surface, evident by the bubble clouds left behind as well as their ventral pleats bellowing outwards after surfacing. The first three whales we encountered in close proximity to one another have been identified as Whirlwind, GOM 1753, and Boathook.
GOM 1753 and Boathook surfacing together
The other five humpbacks were hanging out a little ways south, making us dizzy as we spun our heads in circles trying to watch them surface in all directions, all the while, three different fin whales also passed through the area. Once our heads were back on straight, we were able to ID all of our humpbacks as Diablo, Pinball, Seadog, Picket, and Evolution.
Not long after saying goodbye to all of our whales on the ledge, we got some quick looks at a basking shark before it headed further down into the depths of the ocean.
Two wildly different trips making for one incredible day!
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