Granite State Whale Watch: August 12-13, 2024

There was only one word to describe Monday's trips: UNBELIEVABLE. As mentioned many times before, and many to come, each trip brings its surprises. Monday took our breath away, in so many ways. On Monday morning, the trip began with distant looks at Satula the humpback whale. This whale was on the move and only surfacing for a couple of breaths at a time. We also tried to check out a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, but "whale-luck" did not appear to be on our side. So, we aborted all of it and went looking for other activity. Glad we did! We came across two humpback whales, Shuffleboard and Chablis. We were finally getting some decent looks at wildlife when the whales' behavior changed, and we were in for an impressive treat. Both whales breached multiple times and then they both started to flipper slap! We haven't seen activity like this from adult humpback whales all season. WOW.

Post-breaching by one humpback whale and pre-breaching surfacing by another humpback whale. Look at that whitewater!

Mid-head breach!

Another whale, another breach!

Flipper-slapping humpback whales

As if sightings couldn't improve, we found another (larger) pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins on our way home.

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Then came Monday's afternoon trip. Based on our amazing morning activity, I thought there was no way we could reproduce sightings similar to those we had seen. Gosh, this was going to be a tough act to follow. Little did I know the whales had other plans in store for us. To start, thanks to Captain Rick on the Yellow Bird for sharing the news of what they were passing by on their travels home from their all-day fishing adventures. PILOT WHALES were in the area!!!!!

PILOT WHALES!!!

The Granite State hasn't seen this type of whale since 2013!!! Oh my gosh! Many thanks to our fellow whale-watching boats who were equally astounded by the report and got on the scene to share the good news and location of these whales. Half of our crew had never seen pilot whales, so it was a very special day for us on board.

Pilot whale calf photo-bombing the image 😃

Pilot whale playing with seaweed; so cute!

Pilot whales upside-down and right-side up

However, the excitement didn't end there. Not far from the pilot whales was a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins - the type of toothed whales we generally have the chance to see during our trips.

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Before spending more time with the pilot whales in the area, another species of toothed whales was seen, BOTTLENOSE dolphins! It has been an even longer amount of time since we last saw bottlenose dolphins on one of our whale watches.

Bottlenose dolphins

Bottlenose dolphin leaping through the air!

This day was getting more and more unbelievable at the moment. Once we finally started heading home, we checked out an ocean sunfish before one more type of toothed whale decided to swim right toward us: COMMON dolphins!!!!

Sneaky subsurface ocean sunfish

Common dolphin

We had a GRAND SLAM of toothed whales, WHAT?!?! I am not sure how we became so lucky to witness so much wildlife in one day (granted it was one of our crew members, Molly's, Birthday!), but the entire crew is still in shock at what we witnessed. It all circles back to wildlife, being their wild selves and us being privy to such incredible marine mammals. Thank you, whales.

Tuesday provided its moments as each day, and each trip is unique. Tuesday was a prime example of those experiences on Jeffreys Ledge. During the morning trip, we checked out an ocean sunfish as we made our way offshore.

Ocean sunfish

We then had a curious minke whale for a few surfacings. From there we continued searching and searching. We checked out many locations where we have had whale activity recently. This time, however, there were no whales. So, what do we do? Keep looking! We ended up finding a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins and got some great looks at these toothed whales.

Dolphins

Atlantic white-sided dolphins (above and below)

On Tuesday afternoon, our other whale-watching friends shared news they had found a pod of pilot whales! We checked out these whales, including their calves, as they swam through the area.