Thursday afternoon, after making our way towards Jeffrey's ledge, we began our trip by spending time with a single humpback whale, before pressing on to what I can only describe as whale soup!
Humpback whale diving
After pressing on a short while further, we spent the rest of our whale watch with our engines turned off as we were circled by at least eight different humpback whales, constantly bubble-feeding in all directions around the boat. Some whales working together to corral schools of fish together before lunging upwards with their mouths wide open, others utilizing kick-feeding, a method of feeding utilized only by humpbacks within the northwest Atlantic population!
Two humpbacks cooperatively feeding
Multiple whales surfacing after feeding
Humpback surfacing with mouth wide open!
After careful investigation of our research photos collected during this trip, we were able to pick out all three of the Blue Ocean Society's adoptable humpback whales, Satula, Pinball, and Owl, as well as Ravine, Clamp + '24 calf, and Mudskipper + '24 calf.
Friday morning's whale watch started with a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! The first group was only a few individuals, but as the morning progressed we would eventually pass by several more pods of these white-sided dolphins. After spending time with our first group of dolphins, we didn't have to press on much further before coming across the first of two fin whales we were able to observe, before pressing on further south.
Mother and calf white-sided dolphins
Fin Whale arching back before diving
Once we arrived at the southern tip of Jeffrey's Ledge, we spent time watching two different humpback whales before ending our trip with a humpback mother/calf pair. Right before we departed the area, the calf decided it was time to go vertical! We were witness to several spinning head breaches by this calf while mom was busy down in the depths of the ocean searching for food.
Humpback diving
Humpback calf breaching!
Friday afternoon we decided to start our journey by crossing over more inshore areas as we made our way south towards the ledge. In doing so, we were able to spend time with a pair of fin whales. Those whales on one occasion surfacing quickly, filtering out saltwater between their baleen after lunging through bait.
Pair of fin whales
After saying goodbye to our fin whales and pressing on, we eventually came across a pair of humpback whales, one of those whales being an individual known as Evolution and the other having yet to be identified.
Humpback whale surfacing
To finish off our day we made our way out towards a nearby mother/calf pair of humpbacks. We were treated to excellent looks at the calf repeatedly tail breaching at the surface, before eventually mellowing out and reuniting with mom.
Mother/calf travelling together
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