June 28-29, 2025

We remained on land on Saturday because of the weather. On Sunday morning, we had some fog to deal with as we made our way offshore. The fog continued to blanket the area even out on Jeffreys Ledge. While our visibility varied, our search continued and paid off. We started with a minke whale before checking out our first ocean sunfish of the season. 

Ocean sunfish

Then we found two humpback whales, Fan and Owl. Owl was quite the showstopper when this whale started breaching and flipper slapping. Such a sight! 

Head breaches from Owl (above and below)

The morning wrapped up with a quick look at a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins associated with humpback whales Valley and Spika. 

Humpback whale (left) and dolphins (right)

On Sunday afternoon, we left the harbor again in fog. However, before reaching Jeffreys Ledge, the skies started to clear. The trip started with a look at a basking shark. 

Basking shark fin

We then found four humpback whales associated with a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. The humpback whales, Fan, Valley, Spika, and Ditto, were sleeping. Such a mellow group of marine mammals! We then checked out another pair of humpback whales nearby. Guess what? These whales were napping too!😀This pair consisted of Owl and Chromosome. 

Pair of humpback whales

Owl diving

At one point, we had Owl and Chromosome on one side of the boat and the group of four on the other side!

Syncronized dives

June 26-27, 2025

 The offshore conditions on Thursday morning were not as forecasted and that became very apparent as we passed by the Isles of Shoals and proceeded to get pummeled by gusting wind and increasing chop and swell. We quickly made the decision to turn back towards home along with a brief tour of the islands. We are always at the will of the ocean on our trips and safety/fun are our top priorities, neither of which were likely to be achieved by continuing that trip. The decision was also made to cancel the afternoon, so now we would wait to see if Friday would stick to its forecast.

I am happy to report that Friday morning most definitely delivered on its forecast and we made our way offshore with beautiful, glassy calm see conditions. Our trip began with absolutely incredible looks at a fin whale. With the calm seas, we could see the entire length of this whale just beneath the surface!

Fin whale diving

My day had already been made, but we were nowhere near being done with this whale watch. We continued further offshore, coming across three different humpback whales Quote, Cupid, and Clamp, all in close proximity. This was a very exciting encounter for our crew, knowing that Clamp is actually the mother of Cupid, who was born back in 2016. Baleen whales, in general, are not known for travelling in family groups, so it is very unlikely that these whales were purposely in proximity to one another. However, we are left wondering if these two knew of each others presence (so many questions we may never get the answer for!!!). As we watched our original three humpbacks, several minke whales were being seen out in the distance, before we were joined by another pair of humpback whales, Tripod and Chromosome. 

Minke whale diving

Humpback pair travelling

We began slowly making our way through the area, getting brief looks at another fin whale, while Clamp, Tripod and Chromosome were all moving in the same direction as our boat. Our goal was to try and document a sixth humpback in the area (very limited success on that front), before starting our journey for home. Along the way, we had one more stop to make.

Basking shark

We were able to get incredible looks at a basking shark travelling near the surface, before ultimately, continuing on back towards Rye. A truly, truly incredible start to our day!

Surface conditions were just as beautiful Friday afternoon as it was in the morning. We were headed back out to where we had found success in the morning, and were quickly met with a familiar fluke, Clamp! This whale was doing a whole lot of travelling, never going on a deeper dive, but still giving us great looks at the underside of her tail.

Clamp's signature tail flick

We eventually pressed on to do some more searching, before coming across Quote the humpback. Quote was very busy circling around the area, blowing lots of bubble clouds before coming up to the surface, filtering out lots of saltwater. It was easy to see why, as we stared down beneath the surface, getting to see hundreds upon thousands of menhaden (a small schooling fish) swimming by. We said goodbye to Quote, but didn't have to wait long before our next sighting, a basking shark.

Quote diving

Basking shark

We spent a lot of time searching before we had to start making our way back towards Rye. Along the way, we were able to reconnect with Clamp for a short while. We thought that would be it for sightings, but saw another distant blow on our way in. As we got closer, this was revealed to be the very same fin whale that we had started our morning with, distinguishable by its unique dorsal fin.

Fin whale diving

Such a beautiful day full of whales and sharks! Both of our trips on Saturday have been cancelled due to rough seas, so our fingers are crossed for an improved forecast on Sunday.

June 25, 2025

This morning was a beautifully calm day on the ocean. We passed by a small group of harbor porpoises and a harbor seal on the way out to Jeffreys Ledge. We spotted a large whale in the distance and as we moved closer to get a better look, two minke whales surfaced not far away. The large whale was a humpback who was easy to identify based on the distinctive scar/injury on her back. Owl! She was surfacing frequently and close- at one point she even swam under the boat! We love this whale!

After a bit we moved on in search of more whales. Our special guest onboard, RyRy, who has decades of experience looking for whales, spotted a breaching whale miles in the opposite direction. We turned and eventually found a humpback named Spika, who jumped out of the water several times and began to flipper-slap! What a sight to see!

On our journey home, we saw another humpback whale named Ditto and a quick look at a basking shark.

The afternoon trip was a bit quieter. We found Owl again, but she was pretty mellow and just paddling along at the surface.

A minke whale and a couple of harbor porpoises were seen in the distance, and then we found another humpback whale. This one wasn’t showing flukes, but we could ID it as Clamp upon later inspection of our photos!

We continued home, but encountered yet another humpback whale. This one looked smaller than the ones we saw earlier, and wasn’t bringing its flukes very high, so it took us a bit to figure out who it was. On our way home, we matched it to Ghostship, a recently named whale we have seen briefly the past two years!

We also spotted a seal, a fin whale from a distance, and later, close to the Isles of Shoals, a flock of five glossy ibis!

June 23-24, 2025

 Monday morning's conditions left little to be desired as we were doing all of our searching with a flat, calm, glassy ocean surface, so any disturbance we see saw was very likely some sort of marine life! We were met with relative quiet until we got out onto the ledge. There, we began our trip with a humpback whale, Owl!

Owl diving

As we were watching Owl, another humpback waaaay out in the distance breached and began flipper slapping at the surface. By the time we made it over to that whale, who we identified as Ditto. It had very much mellowed out as we approached and even began napping right next to the boat. There was another blow on the horizon, so we headed over in that direction. We saw lots of tiny splashes at the surface, and occasionally were given glimpses as to what was causing it, lots and lots of baitfish!

Mackerel

As we approached the whale we had been searching for, something seemed a little off. We had our suspicions as to why that was, but couldn't say for certain until that suspicion was confirmed...

Fin whale mother

Fin whale calf

A mother/calf pair of fin whales! Definitely a rare sighting for us on the Granite State. We are very lucky it we get to see one, maybe two, fin whale mother and calf pairs throughout an entire season. These whales were initially alternating their dives and surfacing's, but we eventually got looks at both of them travelling side by side. We eventually waved goodbye to these whales and made our way over to one last whale before we made our turn for home. Another humpback whale.

Humpback whale lunging

This turned out to be a whale known as Yurt. It was lunging at all of the bait that we had been seeing just beneath the surface! Finally, it was time for us to continue on towards home.

Monday afternoon began with us venturing back out to where we had found success on the morning trip. We mean it when we say every trip is very different, because almost all new whales had moved into this area after only a few hours. Our sightings started with looks at a humpback whale, Quote.

Quote diving

Quote, along with the other two humpbacks that we were able to get looks at, Owl and Spika, were all blowing bubble clouds and feeding on baitfish just beneath the surface. Occasionally, these whales would lunge vertically at the surface, giving us excellent looks at these feeding displays. At one point, Owl turned in towards us, so we shut our engines off and let her pass on by. 

Owl diving towards boat

Eventually, Owl and Spika paired up to work together and feed, while Quote began moving a bit further out of the area. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to Rye Harbor!

Tuesday morning began with everyone ready to escape the heat on land! Much needed reprieve was found as it was quite a bit chillier offshore. We were headed to where we had found luck with whales the day before, but quickly made a turn elsewhere as we had received reports of whales a bit further south. Once there, we first got looks at a humpback whale that I'm just expecting to make an appearance on all of our whales watches at this point, Owl!

Owl at the surface

Owl was doing quite a bit of travelling, but as we followed her we could see other blows off in the distance, so we left Owl to continue on with her day. Our next stop was with a very surface active humpback, a whale named Cupid! This whale was initially feeding near the surface, but eventually switched up that behavior in favor of another, tail lobbing!

Cupid feeding

Cupid smacking its tail repeatedly at surface

All good things must come to an end though, and Cupid eventually resumed more normal behaviors. Our trip wasn't over yet though. Before all was said and done, we got to spend time with a trio of humpbacks, Chromosome, Tripod, and Whirlwind. These whales were doing some travelling, but every now and again stopping to feed near the surface.

Humpbacks feeding in the distance

Now we were really out of time, so back to land we went!

I thought the morning heat was bad. Tuesday afternoon proved me wrong as we were all dying to get out of the harbor and make our way offshore. Thankfully again, offshore conditions were much more comfortable. We decided to switch up where we did our whale watching in the afternoon and moved back up north a ways from where we had been that morning. As we approached the ledge we saw a single distant spout. Closer inspection revealed it to be Quote the humpback! As we watched Quote, my heart practically stopped when two loud exhales rang out right next to the boat. From seemingly nowhere at all, we were joined by humpback whales, Valley and Fan.

Valley and Fan next to boat

These whales eventually went down on deeper dives. Off in the distance, there was a fourth humpback we had been seeing, and I was pretty certain who it was. Considering recent trips, it only made sense that we also run into our regular humpback, Owl, once again. 

Owl diving

We spent quite a bit more time with Owl, as well as our pair of humpbacks, Valley and Fan, before it was time for us to continue on towards home. Not long after making our way out of the area, we got eyes on a large fin at the surface and stopped for looks at a basking shark!

Basking shark dorsal fin

These sharks never seem to be bothered by our presence so we got some truly excellent looks at this animal before eventually continuing on towards home. Our sightings ended with a second basking shark that actually breached right next to the boat. An amazing way to end our day!

June 21-22, 2025

 Saturday morning began with beautiful, glassy sea conditions that always make us excited to head out and see what the day has in store. The days sightings began with a basking shark! We were able to spend a few minutes with this shark before it eventually sank down into the depths below. It wasn't long after that before we came across our first whale of the day, a humpback whale named Badge!

Basking shark fin

Badge diving

As we spent time with Badge, this whale was doing some surface feeding all around the boat as we sat motionless (as motionless as you can be on the ocean) with our engines off. While watching this whale, we were able to spot some distant spouts. After heading over to investigate, these spouts turned into two humpback whales, Valley and Fan. These whales were working together to cooperatively feed near the surface. While we waited for our pair to resurface, we were very briefly given looks at a small group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! It's been almost a month since we've had the chance to see these toothed whales so to say we were excited would be an understatement.

Atlantic White-sided Dolphins

Fan Diving

After getting our last looks at the humpback whales, we did just a bit more exploring before coming across a fin whale travelling through the area!

We spent a few surfacing's with this whale, getting excellent looks before we had to make our way back towards Rye.

Saturday afternoon began with us venturing offshore back to where we had luck with whales in the morning. Once we returned to the area, we got very brief looks at a minke whale before spotting some distant blows. As we approached the whales, we were greeted by a trio of humpbacks, Valley, Fan, and Spika! 

Fan diving

These whales were initially spending a fair amount beneath the surface, but that all changed when two of our whales unexpectedly lunged vertically next to the boat, captured fish and saltwater in their mouths. I was unfortunately unable to pull my camera fast enough to get much more than just the aftermath. 

Humpback whales crashing at the surface

Humpbacks travelling

We eventually pressed on to do just a bit more searching, before getting quick looks at another distant humpback, Quote, before continuing back towards Rye.

Sunday morning was a no-go due to high winds and rough seas, but the forecast called for the weather to calm down a bit, so we gave it a shot in the afternoon, and I'm very glad we did! Our trip began its first sighting as we were passing through the Isles of Shoals with amazing looks at an Atlantic Puffin!

Puffin at rest

Puffin in motion

Definitely not a species of bird we get the chance to see on the regular, so always a welcome treat when they do make an appearance. We left our fancy bird to press on in search of animals that are just a bit larger. The swell and chop was most definitely still present, but we didn't let that stop us from reaching our goal. Our whale sightings began with Owl the humpback whale as she was very active, feeding just beneath or at the surface.

Humpback whale, Owl

We eventually saw a distant pair of whales, so we said goodbye to Owl to see who else might be spending time in this area. Upon arrival, our pair of whales turned into Valley and Fan! Great to see these whales still travelling together after seeing them both on Saturday's trips. 

Valley diving

While watching this pair, more whales began moving into the area, as we also were able to identify two more humpbacks, Quote and Spika. We spent as much time as we could with these whales before we had to return home, thankfully, with a much smoother ride back in.