July 16, 2025

Hazy conditions prevailed today, and just as we came into the area where we have been seeing whales recently, the fog set in, allowing us no more than a hundred feet of visibility. On any given day, this is not good news. But for today, it was extra bad as we had a reporter and cameraman from WMUR on the boat doing a story on whales, our company, and conservation. Ugh. But as luck would have it, as we slowed down to start searching, the fog lifted, and within minutes, we saw our first whales! Phew!

A pair of fin whales was circling around the area, and only staying down for a few minutes.

We spotted a minke whale nearby as we watched the pair, but it never came too close. We saw a humpback whale in the distance, and as we were waiting for it to resurface, a basking shark surfaced. The large shark was spending time just below the surface, where we couldn’t get great looks at it, so we turned our focus to the humpback whale. Upon our first few glances, we immediately recognized this whale as Sedge! Sedge has been in the area on and off for a couple of weeks.

 

Then our crew spotted another fin whale and a handful of Atlantic white-sided dolphins about a mile away. Dolphins have been rare this season, but we hope to see more as the summer progresses.

Next, we found another humpback whale, Satula! He was pretty busy doing whatever whales do underwater, so we never got close looks at him, but whales will be whales!

One more look at Sedge, and it was time to go back to Rye, passing through the Isles of Shoals.

This afternoon, we headed back to the same area and, from a distance, saw two humpback whales diving together. With our binoculars, we ID’ed them as Sedge and Spoon!! We haven’t seen Spoon in a while, so it was a nice surprise to see her back in our area! The pair didn’t stay with each other for long, but stayed in the same general area.

A fin whale surfaced nearby, as did a minke whale. And then another humpback whale- Satula! As the popular children’s book says, “everybody poops.” Well, that applies to whales as well! In true Satula form, he left us with a big brown cloud as he dove. We are thankful for him fertilizing our ocean, leaving behind nutrients that will allow our phytoplankton to thrive. Phytoplankton is responsible for producing half of the oxygen on the planet, so the next time you take a breath, you can thank a whale for pooping!