September 11, 2024

Today was a beautiful day on the water, a welcome change from our last public trip on Friday when the ocean was choppy and confused, and we couldn’t find a whale. Trips without whales happen, but this was our first “skunk” of the season. Fortunately, today, we were back on track with a variety of sightings!

We passed by two pods of harbor porpoises before finding a small group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! Although many use the terms porpoise and dolphin interchangeably, they are different animals. One of the biggest differences between harbor porpoises and Atlantic white-sided dolphins is their curiosity for boats. Harbor porpoises want nothing to do with us, while the AWS dolphins are often curious and will come close to boats. Today’s calm seas were perfect for viewing these animals as they swam around the boat.

Next, we found an ocean sunfish that stayed at the surface long enough for all of our guests to see.

After a couple of hours of searching, we finally found a large whale. And large it was! Fin whales are the 2^nd largest species of whale in the world, and we found multiple throughout the trip! Our first two fin whales were quite cooperative, allowing us to get great looks as they took many breaths at the surface.

A couple more fin whales were spotted in that area but they were a little less cooperative. As we headed for home, some of got a quick look at a grey seal, but then a large basking shark showed us how magnificent they are! Basking sharks are the 2^nd largest species of shark in the world and although this one wasn’t the largest, it was still pretty big- maybe 20 feet in length!

As we continued back to the harbor, we passed by several more distant blows before stopping on one that was close to our course home.

 

September 4, 2024

Wednesday was another lovely day on the ocean with some of the calmest seas we have seen all season. The glassy water led to us finding an ocean sunfish, followed by three blue sharks finning at the surface. The first shark was actually rubbing up on a branch! Although I had never seen this behavior from a blue shark before, we learned from Capt. Jonathan that blue sharks get the nickname “blue dogs” because of their affection for sticks!

A bit later, we found a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins as well as a fin whale that was taking long dives. 

We spotted a humpback whale in the area so we moved closer to that whale and got a couple of looks at this whale’s magnificent tail as it dove. The whale wasn’t one of our regulars, but we were able to eventually identify it as Decimal, a whale we have seen in prior years, but this was our first sighting of it this year.

Then, in the distance, we saw some more blows. There, we found a pair of fin whales swimming slowly at the surface, and one even “logged” at the surface for a bit! Slow-moving, floating fin whales are rare to see as they are usually very fast and stealthy!

We saw a couple more fin whales with some Atlantic white-sided dolphins before heading for home.

 

On our way home, we saw a lot of splashing in the distance. This turned out to be a huge pod of maybe 200 Atlantic white-sided dolphins who were very active! Some were leaping 10-20 feet out of the water, others were tail-slapping, and then a pair of dolphins jumped out right next to the bow! Incredible! Maybe they were practicing for the next summer Olympics in the sport of synchronized jumping!

I can’t wait to see what the weekend brings!

September 2, 2024

Happy Labor Day! Goodness, time goes by fast. We have officially started our fall whale-watching schedule. Our trips run each Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday through Columbus Day weekend. Today's trip was full of fin whales. We sighted nine to be exact; so many of these massive mammals! We also had a quick sighting of a blue shark. 

Awesome look at a fin whale surfacing

Fin whale

Blue shark barely making its presence known

Check out some of the images below to see how unique each fin whale dorsal fin can be. These whales are so impressive.

August 31 - September 1, 2024

The last day of August brought us a couple surprises. We have been venturing to Jeffreys Ledge where whales have been the past few weeks. On Saturday, we had a report of whale activity well inshore of Jeffreys Ledge. We came across a humpback whale named Limpet. This whale was circling the area, allowing for some fun looks as it darted here and there. 

Humpback whale

On Saturday afternoon, the forecasted wind was waiting for us, and so were the whales. We first started with a humpback whale that has yet to be identified. As we came into the area a fin whale surfaced in the distance. These whales were spending a lot of time subsurface, so we decided to sneak away. Not far away we once again got to spend time with Limpet the humpback whale. To our surprise, Limpet started to tail breach then lobtail! Whales are wild, so it is always unexpected when they decide to shift their behaviors.

Tail breach!

Humpback whale lobtailing (above and below)

As we were venturing offshore on Sunday, we came across a fin whale. While the wave action was moving, the whale was not moving far or fast. 

Fin whale

We also attempted to check out a second fin whale we spotted during our travels, but that whale was being a bit more elusive. September has arrived so stay tuned for more updates as we move into our fall trips.