Sunday, September 6

Labor Day weekend is going strong and so are the whales. We had plenty of life to look at today on both of our trips. This morning we saw an Ocean sunfish, 4 Fin whales, 6 Minke whales and 3 Humpback whales. This afternoon we started our trip with a Basking shark, saw 2 Fin whales and ended the trip with a pair of Humpback whales. What a day. This morning we started the day in an area where Fin whales were circling all around us. There were at least 4 Fin whales darting around, sometimes grouping up in pairs, before separating once again.

One of our morning Fin whales

Among all of these whales was a familiar dorsal fin in the mix. Dingle was partaking in all of this movement around us.

Dingle the Fin whale

With a few more looks at our whales moving around us, and a quick look at an Ocean sunfish, we headed further offshore.

Ocean sunfish

We ended up spending time with 2 of the 3 Humpback whales we were seeing. We started with Geometry and then ended up with Nike.

Geometry the Humpback whale

Nike

Along the way we saw plenty of Minke whales pop up around us. This afternoon the sea breeze picked up and we were off to look for any of the same whales we saw this morning. Our first stop however was not a whale instead, it was a large shark. One of the second largest sharks in the world; we had a Basking shark!

Basking shark swimming straight in towards the boat!

This shark was insanely cooperative. While it remained slightly below the waterline, this shark never got spooked by our presence and we were able to get some fantastic looks at such a fun (and large) sighting!

Subsurface Basking shark

Eventually we let this shark swim away from us and we continued on. Our next stop was this time one of the second largest whales in the world! We ended up finding two different Fin whales.

Afternoon Fin whale

And guess what? One of our whales was Dingle again!

Afternoon sighting of Dingle the Fin whale

Our day ended up with a pair of a different type of whale. A pair of Humpback whales were on the move together but not moving far in any direction.

Humpback whale pair

We got some great looks at Mogul and Highlighter before it was time to head back to Rye Harbor. A very successful day checking out so much marine life in their natural habitat.

Humpback whale spout

Saturday, Sept 5

As we always say, every trip is different. Today was a great example of that.  As our postings have shown, we have been seeing multiple humpbacks most every day for the past few weeks. Well, the northeast wind blew Thursday night and Friday morning, stirring up the conditions. After staying at the dock yesterday to ride out the rough seas, we ventured out this morning to areas where we had humpbacks earlier in the week with no luck. We passed by several harbor seals and small pods of harbor porpoises on our way out. Then we found a fin whale that appeared to be trying to win a breath-holding competition, staying down for over 12 minutes.    

After a bit more searching, we came upon a very friendly pair of fin whales (mom and calf). The mom was Comet (an adoptable whale through Blue Ocean Society), and her calf this year is especially curious. At one point, it was next to the boat, rolled over and lifted its tail out of the water!  We got some really great looks at these whales and even witnessed the calf nursing!  

Comet's calf's fluke!

Comet and calf

We also stopped to look at an ocean sunfish (one of three throughout the trip).

Then our mate spotted a sea turtle in the area!! This was a leatherback- the largest living species of sea turtle! We only got a few quick glimpses as this elusive species dove as we approached it. Sea turtles are known to be in the Gulf of Maine but are rarely seen due to their elusive behavior.

Leatherback turtle

Leatherback turtle

At this point, we were out of time and began to head back to the harbor. But on the way back in, another species surprised us! A humpback whale surfaced and we spent a bit of time with this whale that wasn’t all that keen on lifting its tail. We weren’t sure who this whale was until we relocated it during our afternoon trip. This was Hornbill, another one of Blue Ocean Society’s adoptable whales!!! Hornbill is known for being a bit mysterious so it was really no surprise when we found out who he was.

This afternoon, as I said, we relocated the humpback whale named Hornbill. Unfortunately a small boat was speeding around the whale and being really disrespectful to the other whale watchers as well as the whale.  So, to give the whale a little bit of peace, we continued on offshore to hopefully find some other activity. 

 Our move paid off as we found a pod of harbor porpoises, several fin whales, an ocean sunfish and 4 more humpback whales including Highlighter, Mogul, Nike and Cacophony as well as a couple of minke whales. So many whales, so little time.  We hope that some of these whales stick around for a bit!

Happy Labor Day weekend!

Thursday, September 3

Today was one of those rare days when heading offshore did no good in attempting to get refuge from the summer heat. There was literally not a breath of wind out on the ocean and so instead we enjoyed the warm weather offshore. Of course when we were watching all the whales we spotted today that tended to be the excitement around the boat. We saw so much marine life in such flat calm ocean conditions. We saw three groups of harbor porpoise, at least 9 harbor seals, 5 Minke whales, 6 Fin whales, 4 Humpback whales and an Ocean sunfish. Minke whales continue to be scattered around the offshore regions as we maneuvered around the area today. We started with a very sneaky Fin whale, holding its breath for a long time and barely showing much of its massive body, when it was at the surface.

A massive Fin whale just barely creating a ripple as it surfaces

Turns out every single one of the Fin whales we saw today were equally as sneaky. Many of these whales never appeared to go on very deep dives. Instead, these whales would just slip below the waterline, disappearing from our vantage point, as secretly as they had appeared. Check out some of the many shapes of the dorsal fins from our Fin whales we saw today. These fins are all so distinct from one another and what researchers can use to tell them apart from each other:

First Fin whale of the day, with its lack of dorsal fin

Fin whale #0354

Crow the Fin whale

This Fin whale suddenly appeared alongside Crow from the depths of the ocean!

Along with our Fin whale sightings we started with Mogul the Humpback whale.

Mogul

We then watched Nike and Highlighter move through the water today before finishing up with #0050.

Nike and Highlighter

Nike poking it's muddy head above the water as Highlighter remains close by

#0050

Our day finished with a sighting of an Ocean sunfish before making our final trek back to Rye Harbor. Another great day with so many wild animals.

Ocean sunfish

Wednesday, September 2

The beautiful conditions and whale sightings we have been privy to experience recently once again continued today. We know the whales and weather are both completely out of our control so we are certainly not becoming complacent regarding our recent trips. We once again managed to come across 4 different types of whales, another grand slam of whale sightings, today. In total, we had 2 Ocean sunfish, 7 Minke whales, 4 Fin whales, two pods of Atlantic white-sided dolphins (a small group consisting of 8-10 whales and then a larger group of ~65) and 5 Humpback whales. We started the day with an Ocean sunfish while we waited for a Fin whale to resurface.

Ocean sunfish swimming in towards us!

This whale was on the move so instead we decided to press further offshore. We then began bouncing from whale sighting to whale sighting for whales continued to pop up in all directions around us. We saw Humpback whale #0050 moving through the area, saw another pair of Humpback whales moving in towards us while at the same time saw a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins doing the same.

Humpback whale #0050

One of the small group of dolphins we saw moving towards the boat

We checked out these toothed-whales when suddenly a Fin whale suddenly appeared associated with these dolphins. Awesome!

Fin whale

Eventually we made our way to our pair of Humpback whales. It was Highlighter and Mogul on the move together.

First pair of Humpback whales seen today: Highlighter and Mogul

With some nice time spent with this pair of whales we headed further offshore. Two other Humpback whales were seen; another pair. This time it was Patches and Nike swimming through the water together.

Nike and Patches

We spent time with this pair and as we did so saw a few different seals too. Many of these seals were sleeping!

Sleeping harbor seal

As we wrapped up our time offshore we saw more splashing. Another group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins were passing by. We headed that way, watched them as they traveled along, and then once again suddenly had another Fin whale appear close by with a second one out in the distance! Whales continue to pop up and we most certainly hope they continue to spend time in our small section of the open ocean.

Larger group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins we ended our trip with today

Dolphin on the move

Tuesday, September 1

Happy September everyone! The whales have continued to be stellar with yet another day of a grand slam of whale sightings! We ended up seeing 2 Ocean sunfish, 4 Minke whales, 4 Fin whales, a group of ~150 Atlantic white-sided dolphins and 5 Humpback whales. So much to look at! We have been so fortunate lately having such calm sea conditions and miles of visibility giving us the best case scenario to find, and watch, all sorts of marine life. We once again enjoyed spending time with all of our sightings including a great look at an Ocean sunfish to start our trip with today.

Ocean sunfish

We continued to see spouts out in the distance all throughout the day and so we maneuvered around from one whale to another. We spent time with Humpback whales #0050, Mogul, Ase, Patches and Highlighter today.

Humpback whale #0050

Mogul

Ase and Patches were seen moving around together today

Many of these whales were just circling around and creating bubble clouds, a great indication that these whales were doing some feeding in the depths of the ocean.

Remnants of a bubble clouds dissipating at the surface

We also got some fantastic looks at our large group of dolphins originally feeding before just milling around.

Leaping dolphin!

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

As we were watching some other whales later on we saw a Fin whale spout right in the midst of all of our dolphins. We love seeing different types of whales associated with each other so we could not pass up the chance. Turns out we had 2 Fin whales surrounded by our dolphins now cruising at a good pace through the water while Mogul decided to get in on the mix as well as moved right into the center of the dolphins!

Dolphins were on the move the second time around we watched these whales today (above and below)!

A jumping dolphin and large Fin whale just barely breaking the surface

One of our Fin whales

What a great way to wrap up our day. We checked out one of our Fin whales before turning back towards Rye Harbor. As one of our passengers said recently, a jackpot of a day!