Thursday July 11

Today we got a chance to watch Minke whales, a Fin whale, and a stop at Boon Island to check out the seals on both of our trips today. This morning, after dodging some heavy rain storms and a quick stop to look at the seals, we made out way out towards Jeffreys Ledge. 

Seals checking us out in the waters around Boon Island (above and below)

A spout was spotted and soon we realized a different Fin whale had arrived on the ledge. This whale's body and dorsal fin was different than the other Fin whales we have been seeing recently. We watched as this whale circled around and at one point swam right in towards the boat.

Fin whale

On our ride home we even caught a quick glimpse at two different Minke whales. This afternoon we headed back out towards where our Fin whale had been in the morning. Before making our way to the area we were sidetracked with some great looks at a Minke whale.

Minke whale

This whale spent some time cruising down the offshore swells and circling around the area. We pressed on and did some searching before we were once again lucky enough to find the same Fin whale from this morning.

Fin whale spout as a dark rain cloud passes further offshore

This animal was still around and provided the opportunity to take more photographs of this whale in order to help potentially identify it.

Fin whale

We will wait to make sure the Master Fin whale IDer from Blue Ocean verifies this match but we think it is Fin whale #0282. This whale was first seen on Jeffreys Ledge in 2002 and was last seen in 2009. Welcome back to the ledge and hopefully we'll continue to see this whale moseying around the area for some more time this year!

Close-up look at of our Fin whale's dorsal fin as a possible match of #0282!

Thanks to all of passengers today who did a fantastic job spotting marine life!


Grey seal at Boon Island

Tuesday July 9

Two trips today and as usual both trips were very different thanks to the variety of life on and around Jeffreys Ledge. This morning we started our trip with an Ocean sunfish. This fish spent most of its time swimming around, but never sinking below the waterline for us to lose sight of this fish, giving us a nice chance to show our passengers this interesting looking creature.

Most of the time we could only see the fin of our Ocean sunfish at the surface while this fish was on the move this morning

We then ended up seeing 3 Minke whales throughout our travels to the ledge. Some on the move, some circling around, and some very nice looks at the only non-endangered baleen whale we typically have the chance of seeing during our trips.

3 Minke whales, all slightly different dorsal fins (above and below)

Minke whale #2

Minke whale #3

This afternoon we decided to head to slightly different areas of Jeffreys Ledge. Just beyond the Isles of Shoals we spotted some pelagic birds pestering a tern. A pair of jaegers were attempting to get some food thanks to the tern in the area.

Jaegers circling around a tern

While we have not verified the species we have fun seeing and checking out some of the interesting bird life offshore.

One of our jaegers on the move

Our sense of adventure to other regions of Jeffreys Ledge paid off as we ended up finding a very familiar Fin whale this afternoon. Comet was still around and yet no where near she had been seen only a few days ago! 

Comet

Whales like to move around searching for lots of food so seeing whales we've seen only days before can very much end up being in very different areas. Comet spent most of her time circling around and gave us all some very nice looks at such a large mammal.

Comet's scars

Before heading home we also got a chance to see a Minke whale; a whale that is similar in shape to a Fin whale (sleek dark body and pointed dorsal fin) but less than half the size of a Fin whale. Quite the size comparison!

One more Minke whale for the day

We ended with a special stop at Boon Island as it was on our way back towards Rye Harbor. There was quite the plethora of Harbor seals hauled out on the rocks and even a few Grey seals lurking on the island too!

Seals, seals, everywhere!

Grey seal in the foreground while a Harbor seal hangs out on the rocks in the background

Sunday July 7

Today's trips were all about a flat ocean, whales to watch, and a few sharks to gaze upon. This morning we saw 12 Minke whales throughout our travels. Since the ocean was so calm you could see some of these whales surface out in the distance as we spent time on Jeffreys Ledge today. We got some great looks at these baleen whales as a few of them were darting around the boat so much we constantly were shutting down since they would surface just in front of us! 

Minke on the move

We also got some fun looks at a Blue shark this morning. This particular shark didn't seem to mind us stopping to take a look at it as it continued to remain just below the surface of the ocean for a while. When sharks aren't spooked by us slowing down we love giving our passengers a chance to check out all types of marine life we may see during a trip.

Blue shark at the surface. This shark's dorsal fin is on the left and the tip of its tail can be seen on the right side of this picture.

This afternoon we were back out looking in some of the same areas where we had spent time with some of our Minke whales from the morning. We ended up getting a chance to spend time with a very cooperative Minke whale. 

A Minke whale pokes out the tip of its snout when it surfaces

This animal was very rarely diving and even kept fooling me as it would surface shortly after what I thought was a bit of a deeper dive. There was no wind offshore so the glass-like ocean surface gave us perfect conditions to watch this whale swim around.

Beautiful weather for watching whales including this very distinctly shaped dorsal fin Minke whale

We spent some very nice quality time with this whale before heading over to where some of the other Blue Ocean affiliated whale watching boats were seen earlier. We like to give whales plenty of space so we waited our turn, giving the other boats in the area time with this other species, before we made our way over. A Fin whale was swimming through the scattering of Minke whales around. Initially you might think it was Dingle since we have been seeing this whale over the past couple of days. But in fact that was not the case. Instead another very familiar whale was in the area. Comet has returned for another feeding season to Jeffreys Ledge. 

Comet swimming past the front of the boat

This is the first time Comet has been seen this year so it was quite the nice surprise to spend time with this female whale today.

Note the left and right sides of Comet's body (above and below). Those scars unfortunately came from a previous entanglement in fishing gear. Luckily Comet still survives today and only bares these scars as a reminder of the incident.

On our way home today we had one more unexpected stop. A Basking shark was at the surface. Not only had we gotten the chance to spend time with one of the second largest animals in the world (a Fin whale!) we were now watching one of the second largest sharks in the world! This shark was quite large in size and when it turned to swim right in towards the boat (twice!!) the camera did no justice to capture this shark moving just below the surface. 

This small part of a dorsal fin belongs to a much larger Basking Shark!

Incoming Basking shark. The tip of this shark's head is visible at the bottom of this photograph while the dorsal fin breaks the surface

Alas, the memories of the shark itself is probably better documented but it was definitely the best Basking shark sighting we have had so far this year.

Jeffreys Ledge never ceases to surprise us and with all our great sightings and excited passengers we all got a chance to enjoy some of the world's natural beauty today.

Saturday July 6

What a beautiful day to be out on the ocean today! Not only was the ocean extremely calm but we saw quite the variety of life out on Jeffreys Ledge during our trips today. This morning we once again started with a handful of Minke whales. 

One of the kamikaze Minke whales circling all around us today!

We spent some time watching them, with a total of 8 Minke whales being seen throughout the whole trip, before moving on to Dingle the Fin whale.

Dingle continues to spend more time on Jeffreys Ledge

Dingle

At one point Dingle surprised us all as it surfaced just off the pulpit. Nothing like a sound of a Fin whale spout and a massive body rise out of the depths of the ocean right in front of us!

We had heard through radio reports that another species was on the move to the south of us and thank to our other whale watching friends out on the water we were able to relocate some Atlantic white-sided dolphins. We have not seen dolphins for over 2 weeks and so we were thrilled to learn a group was relatively close by. Granted this pod was heading south but we were able to see them before they continued moving away from the area. In route to the dolphins however, we took a quick look at a harbor seal as we saw this seal hauled out on a large log. The seal was logging on a log! 

A very nice balancing act from this harbor seal!

We didn't want to scare the seal off of its sunny spot so we pressed on towards the dolphins. This group of about 100 dolphins were all spread out and sometimes jumping out of the water so we all were able to enjoy spending time with these agile mammals.

Atlantic white-sided dolphins above and below

This afternoon we headed back to the area where Dingle and the Minke whales had been in the morning since we knew there was almost no chance of the dolphins still being around. Before getting to the ledge we found a few Minke whales that were being a bit tricky to watch. They were being very sporadic in their surfacings and so after attempting multiple times to get some looks we decided to cut our losses and perhaps find a few more cooperative whales. We ended up getting some nice looks at a few other Minke whales further offshore that seemed to be spending a bit more time at the surface allowing for everyone to get some nice looks at some of the 9 Minke whales seen in total this afternoon. Thanks to our Blue Ocean Society intern, Ceci, we also got a chance to see an Ocean sunfish today. She spotted this fish while answering questions from some of our passengers; we love multi-taskers with a great eye for marine life (thanks Ceci)!

Incoming Ocean sunfish!

Before heading for home we once again thank the Miss Cape Ann for spotting and letting us know of one more species in the area. Dingle was still around. This whale was being a bit more elusive this afternoon as no one seemed to know where this animal had ventured off too. Low and behold it had just moved a little (whales like to do that more than you think!) and with a bit more time to spend out on the ledge we were lucky enough to get a chance to spend some time with this whale once again today.

Dingle off on a deeper dive

Thanks to all our passengers who were great whale spotters today. We will be back out enjoying the cooler temperatures offshore again tomorrow so feel free to join us if you want a good place to stay cool. Jeffreys Ledge is usually a good bet!

Friday July 5

The ocean certainly was calm this morning. We had just enough wind to cool us down as we ventured out towards Jeffreys Ledge. We ended up seeing 8 Minke whales and Dingle the Fin whale this morning. A handful of Minke whales were actually in the same vicinity as Dingle was too! We watched Minke whales circle around the boat while Dingle spent time making its own circles as all the whales were constantly popping up in every direction around the boat. 

Minke whale swimming towards the boat

Another Minke whale swims by

What a great sign to see multiple whales, of different species, all in the same area. Jeffreys Ledge is once again providing some of the ocean's creatures with lots of food to eat.

Dingle at the surface for a breath of air

This afternoon the wind picked up a little bit but still made for great conditions to spend time with Dingle once again. This whale would spend one minute moving very slowly through the water and then out of the blue you would see a line of flukeprints surface and Dingle was moving in a different direction; suddenly on the move!

Dingle certainly gave us some great looks as this animal kept circling all around us!

Dingle's dorsal fin

This whale was definitely chasing down some food as it was seen filtering at the surface a few times as it continuously circled around the area today.

Incoming Fin whale!

We'll be on the lookout for Dingle and any other whales tomorrow so feel free to come on out to break away from the heat and cool down with some cooler temperatures out on the open ocean!

It's the Fourth of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone! We finally had some favorable conditions to work with today. No fog and not a lot of wind had us all eager to go searching for whale life out on Jeffreys Ledge. Turned out our first stop of the day wasn't a whale at all. We came across a Blue shark circling around a milk carton that was bobbing up and down on the ocean's surface. At first we thought maybe this shark was attempting to eat the debris! Not only is a milk carton not food it is an extremely scary object for a piece of this jug could do some serious damage to this shark if swallowed potentially even causing its death. All debris (including ALL the balloons we keep seeing out there...so sad) can be extremely detrimental to all creatures in the ocean. Watching this shark be so involved with this particular item was very disturbing indeed. Luckily it turned out this shark wasn't trying to eat the carton at all. It was actually using the carton as a rubbing rock. 

White milk carton at the surface while our Blue shark swims next to it

Blue sharks have been seen, not often but occasionally, using floating logs as a much more natural item to rub themselves on. Whether this shark was trying to get something irritating off its skin or perhaps just had an itch I have no idea but, it was still a very cool look at this Blue shark. While we left the carton for the shark to continue with its exfoliation process we did retrieve a balloon in the area to help do our part to save marine life. Unfortunately we can't pick up every piece of trash we see out there (we would seriously be out there 24/7 doing so!) we all get very saddened to see so many potential health hazards floating around out there. Please be mindful of all trash on land so all the living things in the ocean can continue to thrive.

This morning we also got a chance to see 5 Minke whales throughout our travels. At one point we had 4 in the same general area. We ended up getting some great looks as the whales surfaced along side the boat and circled all around.

Minke whale

This afternoon we headed to where we had seen all the Minke whales from the morning and were once again still in the area. Guess what? We even saw a couple of the same ones! Just like some of the other whale species we see on Jeffreys Ledge we can use their dorsal fin shapes, body scars, or small nicks found on the fins to tell Minke whales apart from each other. Granted we've been focusing more on this aspect for just the past couple of years but it was still fun to see that at least one of the whales from this morning was still circling around this afternoon. 

The same Minke whale seen on both trips. Above: the morning trip. Below: the afternoon whale watch.

As we spent a little more time with the Minke whales in the area, word on the radio that one of our other Blue Ocean Society affiliated whale watching boat, Starfish, had found another species. A Fin whale was out on the ledge! Can you believe it? We literally went through the same area in the morning and did not seen any signs of a Fin whale. Then just hours later a whale! It just goes to remind us that these whales truly can easily move into or out of an area at any time! The sighting got even more exciting when we realized this was Dingle the Fin whale. We last saw this whale almost a week ago on June 26. Dingle was also constantly changing directions and circling around very similarly to the Minke whales we had spent time with earlier in the day. We even saw this whale surface filtering out lots of salt water from its mouth. This whale's lower jaw was extended out allowing for a lot more surface area to gulp in as much food and subsequently lots of salt water in one giant mouthful! What a special treat to end the trip with today.

Dingle surfaces while filtering out all the salt water in its mouth and keeping the food inside!

Hope everyone has a safe and joyful Independence Day and remember to properly dispose of all your trash wherever you may be. And an extra special thank you to one of our passengers today who so matter-of-fact-ly stated he would never allow a balloon to fly away ever again...Absolutely fantastic. The ocean thanks you!

July 2

We left the dock today with little wind and grey skies looming above.  We were unsure as to how the weather would be throughout the trip, but where it wasn't raining, we were anxious to search for whales. 

We headed to Southern Jeffrey's Ledge where whales had been over the last couple of days, but really did not know what to expect.  Whales move around constantly searching for food, so every trip is truely a new adventure. 

After searching for most of the morning with no whales in sight, we started to worry that we may come up short.  We travel to as many different areas of Jeffrey's as we possibly can to increase our chances of seeing whales and as we changed direction we started to see a few pelagic birds in the area.  With a few Wilson Storm Petrel's flying around and spotting a Greater Shearwater, we were hopeful that our luck would soon change.

Shortly afterwards, a disturbance in the water was noticed ahead of us.  We had found a Minke whale, and it had a visible blow!  Minke whales being smaller among the baleen whales, it can sometimes be difficult to visualize their spout.  This Minke whale was taking short dives, allowing our passengers to get great views along both sides of the boat. 

Minke Whale

Minke whale swimming by the boat

We were soon running out of time and as we turned for home, a fog bank started to move in.  The wind direction changed and our ride home turned out to be a bit bumpier than anticipated.   Thank you to the passengers who joined us today.  Mother Nature always has a way of keeping us on our toes.