Friday morning began like any other. Blue skies, rolling seas, and Atlantic white-sided dolphins! These toothed whales are always a great surprise on any whale watch, and we were fortunate enough to encounter three different pods throughout the course of our trip. Not long after spending time with these dolphins did we encounter our first fin whale of the trip as well!
Atlantic white-sided dolphin
Fin whale diving
Little did we know that one fin whale would eventually turn into seven throughout the course of our trip! Many of these whales darting around in all directions around the boat, one fin whale actually lunge feeding vertically, much like humpback whales tend to do! Speaking of which, after pressing on from our fin whale fiesta, we were able to spend quality time with a pair of humpback whales, Nile and Cantilever, who were also surface feeding occasionally around our boat.
Humpback whale diving
Friday afternoon, we made our way back towards where we had found much luck during or morning trip. First, encountering a solo fin whale not too far from where we had seen a few earlier in the day.
Fin whale
After getting some quick looks at that whale, we continued along a short ways before rediscovering our pair of humpbacks from earlier, Nile and Cantilever. These whales occasionally coming up to the surface filtering out lots and lots of saltwater!
Pair of humpbacks diving
After spending time with our two humpbacks, we did a bit more searching before ultimately coming across our last sightings of the day, a pair of fin whales. These whales were paddling! It took a bit of effort to keep up with these two whales, but it was soon clear as to why they were on a mission. On at least a few occasions these whales surfaced filtering out lots of saltwater after chasing down and lunging on prey beneath the surface. After leaving a little bit of evidence for us at the surface, we could determine that these whales were feeding on krill.
Two fin whales, one filtering saltwater
Fin whale diving
Definitely a whole lot of life still hanging out near or inshore of Jeffrey's Ledge! We eagerly await to see what the rest of this weekend will bring.
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