Wednesday morning's trip began quick with our first sighting taking place just under an hour after we left Rye. We started off with Clamp the humpback whale, who was spending much of her time travelling near the surface, occasionally diving and even leaving some evidence of feeding as bubble clouds rose up towards the surface.
Clamp diving
Whilst following Clamp, we spotted a couple of distant blows, so we pressed on to investigate. Eventually, this was revealed to be two fin whales, circling the area in close proximity to one another.
Fin whale diving
One of these fin whales was much more mellow, while the other was doing an excellent job of giving us the slip, such is the nature of these trips as we're out watching wild animals. We eventually made our way back towards Rye, passing through the Isles of Shoals, where we were passed by a black guillemot (a cousin of the puffin) carrying some sort of prey in its mouth that we have yet to identify. Let us know if you have any idea what it could be!
Black guillemot carrying clam worm??
Wednesday afternoon started with us pressing back out towards where we had found success in the morning. Once there, our first sightings came in the form of two individual fin whales, at least one of them being a whale that we had encountered on the morning trip.
Fin whale
After spending time with the two fin whales, we pressed on just a bit further east, where we met back up with our friend from the morning, Clamp the humpback whale. This whale was spending much of her time navigating around vessels fishing for bluefin tuna, which also feed on the same small schooling fish as many of our large whales.
Humpback diving
After saying goodbye to Clamp, we moved back to the west towards a pair of fin whales, which I had assumed to be the same two that we started our trip with, but were now associated, instead of swimming around alone. I quickly found out that I was incorrect in my assumption as these were revealed to be two entirely different whales that had entered the area. We got absolutely incredible looks at both of these whales as we shut our engines off and they turned in towards us during multiple surfacings.
Fin whale pair next to boat
Thursday morning was canceled due to rough weather in the morning, but had become nice enough for us to head out offshore for our afternoon trip. In recent trips, we have been fortunate enough to encounter whales not too long after passing by the Isles of Shoals, and that luck continued this afternoon as we spent time with multiple different fin whales after only an hour of travel.
Fin whale diving
We were able to spend time with two individual fin whales before pressing a ways to the south, where we came across a fin whale mother/calf pair! This is actually the third time this year we have seen these animals. Definitely atypical for us to encounter fin whale mother/calf pairs repeatedly in a season.
Calf checking us out!
While the fin whale mom was spending a decent amount of time beneath the surface, the calf spent a good amount of time circling around the boat and checking us out. Always super special when we see the whales taking just as much interest in us as we are in them!
Mother and calf diving
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