July 17-18, 2025

 In keeping with our 2025 July Tradition, Thursday morning's whale watch began with us blanketed in fog as we made our way out towards Jeffrey's Ledge. Our visibility kept increasing ever so slightly as we travelled along, but not so much that it would make our search any easier. As we were going, one of our interns on the upper deck spotted a blow from a whale back behind us (phew!), so we made our way back around to investigate. This whale revealed itself to be Clamp the humpback whale.

Humpback whale

Clamp spent almost all of our time with her travelling near the surface, only occasionally going down on a deeper dive. Eventually, the visibility cleared up just enough for us to press on and search for any other whales in the area. Our efforts resulted in us happening across another humpback whale, Satula. This whale was doing a great job of moving back and forth between different schools of fish as we rotated ourselves around to get looks at this whale.

Humpback whale diving

Our time was running short, so we started our way back in towards Rye, but along the way, stopping for quick looks at a third humpback whale. As of now, I have yet to identify this whale. It has, very evidently, had a rough go of it out here, seen through the entanglement scars from fishing gear on its tailstock and trailing edge of its fluke.

Juvenile humpback

Entanglement in fishing gear is a huge problem for almost all of the large whales we encounter out along the Jeffreys Ledge region. This whale is currently free of fishing gear, but will unfortunately bear the scars left behind. 

The good news for Thursday afternoons whale watch was that we were fog free for the duration of the trip! The bad news is that the trip only lasted all of two hours. Conditions offshore were deteriorating fast, but it almost seemed as though we could go the length of it, until we actually made it out to Jeffreys Ledge. For the safety of our passengers and crew, we made the decision to turn back early, but not before some quick looks at a few humpback whales nearby.

Humpback whale flipper

There were at least four whales in the general area. Three of which were most definitely humpbacks. These whales consisted of Sedge, swimming around on his own, and Valley + Spoon, who were swimming side by side.

Valley diving

After getting our quick looks, we started our journey back towards home. Even though we saw whales, that trip was most definitely not aligned with our minimum expectations for one of our trips, so white tickets to come back anytime over the next year were distributed to our brave passengers. We hope to see you all soon (hopefully on a nicer day)!

Friday morning gave us a much needed break from the fog we have been experiencing seemingly non-stop, but our reprieve came in the form of high winds from the west, so we took our time making our way offshore, giving the wind some time to ease up as it was forecasted to do. We took a stroll through the Isles of Shoals, getting the chance to see quite a few grey seals, before we continued offshore. It really didn't take long before our first whale sightings, which came in the form of a distant humpback whale, which upon further inspection, turned out to be Satula!

Humpback whale diving

As we travelled along with Satula, we could see two more distant blows. So after spending a bit more time with him, we decided to press out further to investigate. These whales turned out to be a pair of humpbacks, Spoon and Valley. Both of the whales in this pair spent a lot of time resting near the surface, really not making any forward progress at all. They did eventually wake themselves up and dive down into the depths of the ocean, which we used as our opportunity to continue along and do some more exploring. After a short while, we had a minke whale surface close by off of our starboard side, so we slowed up to see if we could get some looks at it. As we were waiting, this whale sneakily swapped sides and gave our passengers on the port side a really excellent look at this whale right alongside the boat (so so sorry for the framing of this photo, I was caught quite off guard)

Minke whale next to boat

As this whale travelled alongside us, we got really excellent looks at the entire length of this whale, but also being able to see a very distinguishing feature of minke whales, the minke mittens (small white patches on either flipper)! After this very exciting surfacing, our minke resumed much more typical minke whale behaviors and became elusive again, but always a super special treat when these whales decide to come in closer to the boat.

Fin whale diving

We continued until we encountered our final sighting of the trip, a fin whale. By this point we could start to tell that the surface conditions were beginning to calm down, so we were excited to see what the afternoon would bring!

Friday afternoon greeted us with much calmer surface conditions than the morning trip. We began our trip by heading out in the general direction where we had found luck with whales in the morning. Once offshore, our first sighting came in the form of Clamp the humpback whale. Clamp was evidently feeding beneath the surface, noted through the bubble clouds she was producing, rising up towards the surface. 

Clamp diving

Eventually, we continued on our way. Captain Jonathan saw a distant blow from a whale, so we began travelling in its direction. Seven minutes passed before we saw it again, and it seemingly wasn't any closer than the first time we spotted it. This eventually made sense as once we were able to get looks, this whale revealed itself to be a fin whale.

Fin whale diving

Fin whales are some of our fastest swimmers out here, but thankfully, this whale decided to slow down and we were able to get some excellent looks. Nearby, another whale watching boat was finishing up their trip with a humpback whale, so once they started for home, we slowly approached to do the same. This humpback, Satula, spent much of his time feeding just underneath or at the surface, and even came in for a few close passes as we shut our engines off, watching and listening quietly to him as he passed by. 

Humpback diving

After a good amount of time, it was time to say goodbye. As we made our turn for home, I spotted some distant splashing, so we made our way in that direction. This splashing actually turned out to be bluefin tuna, very consistently breaking the surface with birds overhead. These fish tend to be very elusive in their surfacings, but we were able to spend a short bit of time watching them as they fed on a nearby shoal of herring near the surface. We then continued along, but were briefly stopped by Clamp once again, before finally making our way back towards Rye.