Sunday July 8

How long can this beautiful weather last???  We are definitely enjoying the serene world out on the ocean as the seas continued to remain calm and temperatures were just about perfect today.  This morning's trip started out inshore of Jeffreys Ledge when we saw a bunch of splashing.  It was a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

Atlantic white-sided dolphins creating quite the white water!

Just beyond the dolphins we also watched a Minke whale lunging through the water multiple times!  The dolphins were on the move but almost always continued to remain just behind where our Minke whale was surfacing.  What a great way to start the day.

White-sided dolphin

Once on Jeffreys Ledge the whales continued to showcase their splendor.  We came into an area where we had 2 pairs of whales.  Two Fin whales were moving through the water together and nearby we had two Humpback whales doing the same!  The Fin whales split apart soon after we eased our way into the area and soon realized one of the Fin whale pair was good old Ladder.  Ladder and its Fin whale "friends," always in close proximity to one of its kind!  Eventually  we ventured over towards the Humpback whale pair.

Two species snapshot: Ladder the Fin whale in the background while Halfmoon the Humpback whale surfaces for a breath of air!

Today we saw Halfmoon associated with another adult whale, Doric!  We sighted Doric on Jeffreys Ledge a couple of years ago but today was the first time this whale made its presence known for the 2012 season.  Great to see you again Doric!

Halfmoon's tail and Doric taking a breath

Doric

Before heading for home we also got the chance to see a few more Fin whales, including Dingle, and one other Humpback whale. 

Dingle the Fin whale

Dyad the Humpback whale

Dyad the Humpback was still meandering around the Ledge and got some very nice looks before turning for home.  However, before too long we spotted more splashing.  With a very quick look (we were running late to begin with!) we got the chance to spend a couple minutes with another group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins.  Nothing like starting the day with a group of 40 dolphins to ending the trip with a group of ~50!

This afternoon we were back on the flat-calm seas in search of more whale activity.  We ended up getting the chance to see, and spend time with, 4 Humpback whales this afternoon as almost all of them were creating bubble clouds.  Looks like we came into the area when it was time for the whales to get some afternoon food.  We first started with Dyad and got some wonderful looks at this whale before seeing another species just out in the distance. 

Dyad

We also got the chance to see one of the second largest animals on the planet for a couple of surfacings all the while having Dyad just out in the distance continuing to surface every couple of minutes.  This Fin whale gave us a great look at its massive size before we were off again to check out some of the other spouts we were seeing just a bit away.

Fin whale surfacing

Deeper dive for our Fin whale

Our next stop was a pair of Humpback whales.  Pinball and her calf were spending the afternoon near all the other whale activity and so we got the chance to spend time with Mom and her "little" calf. 

Pinball and her calf' (dorsal fin above the surface) just next to her

A calf is not so "little" when we twice watched this pair surface and turn right in towards the boat!  Pinball and her calf swam right under the boat before returning back up on the other side but leaving all of us in awe at just how incredibly majestic these mammals can be.  Oh, and have no fear as always we have our engines shut off ANY time a whale decides to move in towards the direction of us!

The "Big-winged New Englander" (aka. Pinball) swimming right in toward us

Pinball diving next to the boat

The water was so calm we even saw a disturbance on the water of a lone fish while out with all the whales.

Small fish probably attempting to avoid any large whale mouth in the area!

It was so clam this critter was creating its own ripples on the water!

The day ended with one last Humpback whale.  Doric was swimming along on its own, having separated from Halfmoon at some point this afternoon for whatever reason known only to them.  This whale was just circling around and gave us all some great last looks before heading back to Rye Harbor.

Doric

We continue to have first-time whale watchers and experienced whale spotters each and every day so wherever you fit into the spectrum feel free to come join us anytime and see what we may experience in the future out on Jeffreys Ledge!

Saturday July 7

Jeffreys Ledge was once again the place to be today!  The ocean was perfect (again!) and the whales were certainly making their presence known.  This morning alone we sighted 20 whales!  The breakdown included 8 Minke whales, 9 Fin whales, and 3 Humpback whales.

Upon the journey towards Jeffreys Ledge this morning we spotted a few Minke whales pointing them out to all on board as we wanted to get a bit further offshore to search for other Minke whales and other species closer to the Ledge. Once again our fishing boat friends passed along a sighting report to us and slightly altered course after being informed of a couple Fin whales not far from where we were originally were planning to start our search this morning.  To our delight we came across a Fin whale mother and her calf! 

Fin whale mother and calf pair going on a deeper dive

As I type our incredible Fin whale ID-Master is attempting to match up our mom to a whale we've seen out on Jeffreys Ledge in the past but so far all is quiet.  This potentially could be not only a new Fin whale to be seen on Jeffreys Ledge, it is also a now-known female since she was sighted swimming along with her calf whom was just born this past winter!  We are always so excited to see new "life" out on the water, especially from Fin whales as many times these mammals seem to not get the appreciation they deserve as being one of the largest creatures on this planet!  It was spectacular to watch these two whales meander through the water with such grace.  With some great looks we continued on to more reports of whales nearby.

Currently unidentified female Fin whale mom but still exciting to see her and her calf on Jeffreys!

Fin whale calf!

What did we happen to come across next???  Another mother/calf pair!!!  This time it was a different species; we were about to spend some time with a Humpback whale pair!  One quick look at Mom and we knew we had come across Pinball and her calf again!!! 

Pinball and her calf getting some fresh air

We last saw these two whales June 23 (two weeks ago to the day!!!) and were very excited to have these animals once again nearby to watch them go about their day! 

Pinball's tail and her calf's dorsal fin

With some nice looks at our pair, a few Minke whales in the area, and even 2 other Fin whales out in the distance, we had a bit more time to explore more of Jeffreys Ledge before heading home.


Our next stop was an area where our friends aboard the Prince of Whales had been shortly before.  We came into an area where there were whales everywhere.  It was a bit of "whale pandemonium!"  Minke whales kept surfacing every which way, we had 3 Fin whales cruising here and there, and a Humpback whale making bubble clouds in the middle of it all!  Anywhere you looked there were whales.  We are able to identify a few of the animals circling about including Dyad the Humpback whale, another Fin whale mother/calf pair(!!!) #9904 and calf, and potentially even Fin whale #0635!  What a way to end a trip.

Dyad's back and dorsal fin

Dyad the Humpback whale

This afternoon it wasn't a difficult decision to head back to where we had seen so much activity only hours before.  On our way out we too saw a few Minke whales before hearing of multiple whales from our friends aboard the Atlantic Queen just a few miles from where we were planning on going.  We ended up coming into an area where there were 4 Humpback whale and a few more Minke whales scattered around the area!  We got the chance to spend a bit of time with Dyad the Humpback whale once again before venturing on towards Pinball and her calf, both of which had moved a bit from where we had sighted them during our morning trip! 

Pinball and her calf giving our passengers a great look as the two whales swim across our bow

Pinball and her calf going on a deeper dive

And let us not forget about Halfmoon the humpback whale who was also swimming nearby as we spent time watching all these whales.


With a quick look at the fish finder we knew why all these whales were close by.  There was PLENTY of food in the water!  The few snapshots I captured showcase the depth of the water (# in the lower right-hand corner) and the high concentration of food scattered throughout the water column!

Lots of fish swimming around towards the bottom of the 194ft of ocean we were in!

This portion of the ocean contains plenty of fish starting from ~50ft below the surface of the water pretty much straight down to the bottom at 188ft underneath us!

Our final familiar animal for the day turned out to be one of our many Minke whales we sighted during our day today.  I know this photo is a bit tricky to understand but this Minke whale is currently going on a deeper dive (directly away from us) but if you look closely it has a propeller wound on its back. An unfortunate event of interacting with a boat in the past has caused this whale to bear such scars from the interaction but luckily has been able to survive such the ordeal.  Great to see "Scar Minke" once again on Jeffreys Ledge as many a "whalehead" knows this animal quite well on Jeffreys Ledge.

Scar Minke is still going strong!

Who knows if these whales will be anywhere near the area where they were seen today but we know we are all looking forward to seeing what may be out there again in the morning!  Congratulations to all of our first-time whale watchers today!  It was a wonderful day to be on the water seeing whales for your first time (or Birthday celebrations, or returning faces!) as we hope the whales were able to leave quite the imprint in your memory today!

Friday July 6

Mother Nature continues to bring us beautiful weather and great whales as today was no different.  Both trips today gave us the opportunity to see, and spend time with, some of the 6 Minke whales seen, 1 Fin whale, and 1 Humpback throughout our travels to and from Jeffreys Ledge!  As we always say, every trip can, and is, very different from each other so even though our totals matched up for both trips (quite unusual as I am realizing this fact as I am currently typing) we got the chance to see different whales doing different things today.

This morning our Fin whale was identified as being #0021.  This animal was first spotted on Jeffreys Ledge in 2000 and has such an interesting curvature to its dorsal fin, it didn't take long to match this animal up to one of our known whales in our Blue Ocean Society Fin Whale Catalog. 

#0021

Close-up of #0021's dorsal fin

This Fin whale was on the move so while we originally got some nice looks at this whale, it was on a mission to somewhere so we let it continue on its way and we continued further out to the Ledge.  Thanks to our fishing boat friends we had reports of a whales a few miles away.  Once we got there guess who we found?  It was Halfmoon the Humpback whale! 

Halfmoon

In two days (we last saw Halfmoon during our morning trip on July 4), this animal had moved to a completely opposite area of Jeffreys Ledge!  We soon calculated that this whale was 25nm from where it had been seen only 48hrs prior!  Not only does this go to show us that the whales truly are constantly moving around on Jeffreys Ledge, and the Gulf of Maine, but that it also does not take long for a whale to "relocate" to other areas of the ocean.  Had this animal moved 25nm in any other direction we would not have been able to spend such quality time with this whale.  A whale's movements are so unpredictable and if you really think about it, it does not take long for any whale to easily move out of the reach of a whale watching boat (aka, further offshore) at any point in time! 

Our afternoon trip also started out with a Fin whale but it certainly wasn't #0021.  This time we got the chance to see Dingle, a Fin whale first seen in 2003 on Jeffreys Ledge. 

Dingle

Close-up of Dingle's dorsal fin

This large whale surprised us during one surfacing as it came up just beyond the back of the boat, circled around, and then pressed onward to the South.  We followed this whale for a bit before continuing on and going in search of other activity. 

It wasn't long before we were once again in the presence of Halfmoon the Humpback whale.  Still circling around the area and making bubble clouds we spent most of our time with this animal with the engines shut off just floating nearby.

Hello again Halfmoon

This greenish looking cloud (and bubbles at the surface) is a feeding mechanism Atlantic Humpback whales use to catch their food!

Halfmoon spent so much time circling the area we did not need to move as this whale just kept surfacing nearby allowing us to just float along as Halfmoon made the only noise: breathing and diving.  No matter what the species, when you get the chance to float in silence, with the engines shut off, as a whale goes about its day right next to you is by far my most absolute favorite type of experience and something that happens only now and again.  It is a moment/minutes like no other.

Thursday July 5

The weather was spot on today as throughout our travels, both during our morning and afternoon trips, the sea was as calm as calm could be and the temperature just right!  Add into the mix some great whales sightings and you have yourself a wonderful Thursday.

This morning we had a few sneaky Minke whales popping up.  We would see them out in the distance, make our way over to the area, and then poof gone.  This didn't happen just once, it kept on happening almost every time we attempted to watch one.  Eventually we got a couple good looks at our Minke whales as we traveled throughout areas of Jeffreys Ledge where we've recently been spending time with the whales.  We ended up doing a bit of searching as the whales clearly had moved (which is sometimes the result after passing through the area and seeing no sign of whale life anywhere) and so we ventured on.  We did end up spending time with two Fin whales in addition to our elusive Minke whales over the course of our trip. 

Fin whale

Both Fin whales spent a bit of time circling the area before continuing on as a few times we had to travel towards the whale as it had moved a bit before coming back up for another breath.  With some very nice looks at our whales it was soon time to get ready for the afternoon trip.

One large portion of this Fin whale as it swims from right to left!

This afternoon we decided to head to a different section of Jeffreys Ledge to search for whale activity since it was such a nice day.  Our first two animals were Minke whales as we ended up getting some very nice looks while these animals were circling the area (and the boat) allowing all of our passengers to see such a whale.

Minke whale

A few hours earlier we could barely spend more than a few minutes in an area where Minke whales were before they disappearred.  Now they were barely spending any time underneath the water.  Oh Mother Nature, you certainly do enjoy keeping us on our toes!

Crazy close look as this Minke whale decides to bring lots of its body above the waterline (swimming from right to left)

Our friends aboard the Prince of Whales made mention of more whales further offshore and so we decided to head that way to see if anything would still be around by the time we got there.  With the glass-calm ocean conditions against the constant splashing of the water we quickly knew we had spotted the activity.  It was a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! 

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

But dolphins weren't the only whales around.  By the time we made our way offshore we got the chance to see the dolphins swimming with a Fin whale.  Better yet, that Fin whale was Ladder!  Seeing these two species together is definitely not commonplace and is such an incredible sight. 

The tiny dorsal fin of an Atlantic white-sided dolphin (left) as Ladder the Fin whale surfaces for a breath of air

Ladder surfacing close to the boat as this photo was taken through the pilothouse window, over our passengers heads, to the whale itself!

Ladder once more surfacing along side the boat

As we continued spending time in the area we realized there was more whale-life around!  Another Minke whale was close by and we saw another Fin whale move towards Ladder.  Soon Ladder, this second Fin whale, AND the dolphins were all swimming together!  What?!?!?  So completely unexpected to see and such an experience. 

Ladder

Second Fin whale joining in on all the "whale fun"

Only 20-25% of the time we are whale watching (mid-May through mid-October) do we get the opportunity to see Atlantic white-sided dolphins just on their own so to see them intermingled between two of the second largest animals on the planet was quite special and quite rare.

It was such a beautiful day out on the ocean today and the whales made it even more exciting.  Hope you too will get the chance to come join us for a future trip in search of the unexpected!

Happy Independence Day!

While this morning brought some sprinkles, a downpour, and then plenty of sunshine, the weather was not deterring our passengers from spending time with the whales!  Our first stop was on a Minke whale just past the Isles of Shoals but with a sudden increase in the size of the raindrops we quickly decided to continue on towards Jeffreys Ledge.  The rain brought clear skies for the rest of the day and once we arrived on the Ledge we had lots of visibility and calm sees to spot whales!  The trip provided a variety of marine life including our whales, some Harbor seals, a few Bluefin tuna, and a Blue shark.  As for the whales we got some incredible looks at our Fin whales as they surfaced a few times just beyond the boat! 

Fin whale

Our trip ended as we found another species, it was Halfmoon the Humpback whale and spent some time with this animal before leaving it to continue to feed (and poop!) out on the Ledge.  In total 8 Minke whales, 2 Fin whales, and 1 Humpback whale later we were headed back in for our afternoon trip.

Halfmoon off on another deeper dive!

This afternoon we were excited to hear reports of whales much, much, much(!) closer to home.  We ended up traveling to a different area of the Ledge than our morning trip allowing us to spend some very nice time with more Minke whales, a couple more splashes from Bluefin tuna, and 2 other Fin whales than the ones sighted this morning.  To our excitement we recognized one of our Fin whales as an animal known to Jeffreys Ledge over the years.  It was #9709.  We know this animal is a female as she was seen swimming with her calf in 2007!  Taking only 4-5min dive we got the chance to get some great looks at her especially at one point when she swam alongside and just beyond the stern of the boat! 

The left and right (below) sides of #9709

A whole lot of body from #9709!

Wishing everyone had a safe and enjoyable 4th of July and hoping the weather was as fantastic as it was where you were, as it was for us out on the water today!

Fin whale creating a tiny "rain-blow" from the diminishing spout as it catches the sun's rays just right

July 3rd

The weather throughout the day was simply perfect. Blue skies and light winds made for ideal whale watching conditions that lasted all day. In the morning we started with a very nice Minke whale that swam right beside the boat several times.

 As we moved offshore in search of other Minke whales as well as other species, we searched for quite some time. Sometimes patience is a virtue when searching for whales where they are constantly looking for food in many different places throughout Jeffrey's Ledge. We got a radio call from an offshore fishing vessel that said they had seen whales just swim through their area and we were only 4 miles away from that location. I updated the passengers that we were going to change direction and we headed to a northern part of the Ledge. As we approached the area the anticipation was building for everyone on board. Then, we spotted not 1, but 2 exhalations from 2 adult Fin whales. As we approached these whales, they were swimming in different directions, but we were able to spend time with both of them.

When we approached the second Fin whale, we noticed lots of splashing near it, and soon realized that we had another species. The fin whale was being escorted by Atlantic white sided dolphins! The dolphins were escorting the fin whale in a manner that's similar to them bow riding a boat. Fin whales are known as the greyhound of the sea and can reach bursts of speed reaching over 20 mph, and the dolphins will use that speed from the fin whale to help them swim more efficiently.

As we turned for home, we saw a different whale exhale not to far from where we were, so we decided to check it out, but knew we didn't have much time to spend there. It turned out to be an adult Humpback whale named Halfmoon who was born in 1979! What a great way to end our trip and we were looking forward to what the afternoon may have in store.

In the afternoon we headed to the same area where we had ended in the morning in hopes that some of the whales may have stayed to feed. Sightings can change in a very short period of time, but we thought we would try our luck again and had good feelings about what might be in store. We travelled for quite awhile and then we spotted a whale exhaling a couple miles closer than where we were in the morning. Once again, one whale turned into 2 and before we knew it we had 2 Fin whales and 5-6 Minke whales around us. We had 2 different fin whales than we had during our morning trip and they stayed along the surface for quite some time, giving all our passengers an idea as to how big they really are.

After spending quality time with all the whales we had, we decided to do a little bit more exploring while time allowed and it paid off. Once again, we were able to find Halfmoon the humpback whale. Halfmoon was creating several bubble coulds to help corral food deep underneath the water's surface. It was a very nice way to end our afternoon trip and the day as a whole.

A big thank you to all our passengers who joined us today. Even though the whales took us further offshore than planned, they did not disappoint. The weather is continuing to look nice into the upcoming weekend and we hope you will join us for an outdoor adventure.


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