Saturday, June 4

Fog, fog and more fog today. Soon after leaving the harbor we were welcomed by a wall of fog that did everything possible to NOT dissipate for us. Fog can appear and disappear in a matter of moments so it is always an unknown as to where, when and how long we will find ourselves enveloped in it. While searching for whales was a bit challenging our persistent passengers never backed down and helped in spotting some of our whales for the day. In total we had 3 Minke whales and a Humpback whale. Our first Minke whale disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared so we decided to continue on towards Jeffreys Ledge. Our second Minke whale was much more cooperative. While watching this whale it was within the foggy horizon that another whale suddenly became barely visible. Our Minke whale had brought us to a Humpback whale!

Humpback whale surrounded by fog

The Humpback whale was darting this way and that way giving everyone some fantastic looks as it surfaced all around the boat. The black and white pigmentation pattern on the underside of this whale's tail matched up with Boomerang, a 31 year old female. Great to see her in the area today!

Boomerang

On our travels home we stopped to get a quick look at another Minke whale. Many thanks to all as you never gave up in the searching process and eventually were rewarded in those efforts!

Minke whale appearing in the fog

Saturday, May 28

The unofficial start of summer is here and the temperatures on land certainly followed suit! However, 20+ miles from shore means we enjoyed slightly cooler temperatures (being that we are surrounded by mid-50 degree water) and minimal breezes moving across the ocean. Our day was full of life as it consisted of 5 Minke whales, 3 Humpback whales and at least 7 Fin whales! Our first Humpback whale of the day was surfacing for a couple breaths and darting all over the place. Soon we discovered who this whale was, a familiar tail to the area, Mogul!

Mogul

This whale was definitely doing some sub-surface feeding as multiple times we saw large patches of bubbles appear at the surface; a known sign of corralling food for a Humpback whale.

Bubbles visible at the surface having been created by Mogul somewhere in the water column

Whale tail

We spent a bit more time with Mogul before we moved on to another whale nearby. It was another Humpback whale but the closer we got we could see there were two of them. It was a mother and her calf!

Mother and calf Humpback whale pair (above and below)

A quick look at mom's tail when she dove confirmed this well-known whale as well. It was Quote with her calf she gave birth to this winter in the warm waters of the Caribbean. What a wonderful surprise!

Quote's unique black and white pigmentation pattern on the underside of her tail

The calf was a bit squirmy at times tail-breaching while mom created some bubble clouds around the area. Soon it was time to turn for home but apparently we were not quite done whale watching. On our travels home we moved through an area where there were at least 7 Fin whales scattered around!

Fin whale's back and dorsal fin

Fin whale surfacing

We watched a pair circle around while other single whales could be seen in directions all around the boat. We got some nice looks at a few of these whales as the whales were consistently changing directions while we slowly maneuvered through it all. What a way to wrap up an already successful day in the Gulf of Maine.

Fin whale spout

Thursday, May 26

Today we brought out a boat-load of students to experience nature's classroom. Mother Nature certainly did a phenomenal job as the ocean was so calm and there were whales to be seen. We headed offshore passing by a few harbor seals before making our way to a few whales. A Minke whale surfaced but soon disappeared so we headed over to a Fin whale not far away. One of the second largest animals on the planet and everyone was able to get some great looks at this whale. This specific whale ended up being a very familiar whale; one that was first sighted by our research affiliates Blue Ocean Society of Marine Conservation in 1997!

Fin whale known as #9709

What a great way starting our trip on a familiar whale knowing it has returned for another year. With such beautiful conditions and some great looks we ventured on to do some more exploring before it was time to head home. We ended up coming across 3 more Fin whales.

Minimal disturbance as this Fin whale surfaces for a breath of air

The flat calm ocean made for watching whales absolutely ideal

Another Fin whale of the day

Wonderful weather and great young minds certainly enjoyed some fortunate wildlife encounters today.

Saturday, May 21

Another nice weather window for us occurred today so off we went searching for whales. In total, there were 4 Minke whales scattered around but unless you were looking in the right direction at the right moment it was a bit tricky watching them. They would dive and not return to the surface for a while making actual whale watching less than ideal. So instead we ventured over to a spout in the distance and checked out a Fin whale moving around the area.

First Fin whale of the day

At one point this whale moved right towards us and surfaced close by getting a great appreciation of just how large Fin whales truly are.

Fin whale surfacing close to the boat

Thanks to a well-trained whale-spotter passenger (thanks Nicole!) another spout was seen out towards the horizon. Soon we were headed that way and ending up coming across another Fin whale.

Fin whale spout

This whale was spending only a few minutes below the waterline allowing for some great looks at this additional whale as well.

Fin whale #2

Tomorrow's forecast will be keeping us on land so stay tuned for next week when we will be back out on the water!

Welcome to the 2016 Season!

The day arrived! Our 2016 whale watching season began today and we could not have been more pleased with the day. The sun was shining (but still cool out there as the ocean's surface is only in the low 50s!), the wind was minimal and we were off with a great crowd to see what might be in the Jeffreys Ledge area. We passed a couple of seals and some harbor porpoise before a whale spout was seen out in the distance. Our first large whale of the year... What kind of whale was in front of us? Would we recognize this particular animal? Turns out it was a Fin whale but not just any old Fin whale. This particular whale is a well-known visitor to the waters off of Bar Harbor, Maine but here it was in our section of the ocean! This whale is known as Lunch and was taking a lot of breaths at the surface allowing for some phenomenal looks at the second largest animal on earth!

Lunch the Fin whale

Soon we pressed on and came across activity from a different species of baleen whale. This time we saw at least 4 Sei whales all lunge feeding around the boat!

Top portion of a Sei whale's head as this whale feeds at the surface

Sei whale dorsal fin

Baleen hanging down from the upper jaw of this feeding Sei whale

These sleek maneuvering creatures (they are THE fastest baleen whale in the ocean!) were easing through the water constantly changing direction and lunging at the surface; all munching down on plenty of food! Side-ways looks, open mouths, extending lower jaws and flippers high in the area were the views we were constantly seeing and fortunate enough to experience.

Sideways Sei whale lunging through the water

Open-mouth Sei whale heading in towards the boat!

What a way to ring in a new season! We are currently whale watching weekends at 11am so stay tuned for more trip recaps.

Saturday, October 10

With today being our final public trip for the season we could not have asked for a more impressive whale-experience to finish with. The weather kept us on our toes longer than we were hoping but the wind eventually decided to slack off as we spent time offshore watching plenty of wildlife today. We saw 14 Humpback whales around the boat with even more spouts out in the distance! There was even a harbor seal sleeping and a brief look at 3 Atlantic white-sided dolphins during our travels. Each time we stopped to check out a sighting the whales were grouped up in pairs, trios and at one point even five on the move together! We saw whales napping, nursing, tail breaching, rolling over, flipper slapping, tail slashing, spy-hopping and being quite curious about the boat. We were surrounded by some phenomenal sights and sounds from these wild animals. Among all our whales were some familiar tails and, once again, more new whales moving into the area. We saw Spoon and her calf, Patches, Sword, Victim, Repeat, Cloud, Geometry, Daffodil, Shuffleboard and her calf, Churn, Pleats and A-plus!

Spoon and her calf

Sword tail breaching

Victim and Sword

Cloud

All throughout the trip there was so much to look at and experience.

Multiple flippers by multiple whales in the air

Our group of 5 whales eventually parted ways and separated into a pair and a curious trio heading our way!

At one point we were held hostage by a trio of whales as they decided to come check us out rather than us just checking them out. We literally could not move as they turned and moved right towards us, surfaced and sank right next to us and swam circles around us.

Rainbow-blow by Shuffleboard's calf

Shuffleboard spy-hopping

Calf swimming down the side of the boat

Incoming Humpback whale!

These whales were so close photos were near impossible to capture with too big a lens on! The memories however, were incredible.

Trio surfacing so close to us

Whale tails (above and below)

We also want to take this time to pass along the many thanks to all of you who joined us over the course of this season. It could not have been a successful year without you. We are passionate about what we do and know so many of you share in the same amazement and awe of these wild animals. We hope you all have enjoyed your special moments and memories we hopefully helped to create while out on your adventure. Each year, it seems that we have more and more familiar faces returning and for that, we thank you. These whales have a way of capturing our eyes, hearts and souls and capturing those experiences with all of you is what we strive to do on every single one of our trips. Please have a safe winter and see you all in 2016!

Wednesday, October 7

The wind and waves have been keeping us attached to the dock this past week so you can imagine how excited we were to have the weather-window finally open so we could get back to the open ocean to look for whales! Anytime a big weather pattern keeps us on land we are eager (and extremely anxious!) to see what may, or may not, be out in the area where we last saw whales. The ocean gets extremely churned up and can cause whale-food to congregate more tightly together, can shift areas or completely disperse all together. Alas, the whales were waiting for us in similar locations to where we have been seeing them over the past month. Perhaps even more exciting was seeing some of the familiar tails we've had in the area recently but also some new whales that we have not spotted in our area at all this season. In total we came across 10 Humpback whales, 2 Minke whales and 4 Harbor seals. Our Minke whales were on the outskirts of the area as we moved around all the whale activity today with harbor seals popping up here and there as well. We started with a sleepy mother and her calf Humpback whale pair. Shuffleboard and her calf were resting at the surface the entire time we watched them.

Shuffleboard and her calf

 We then headed a bit further offshore and came across a trio of whales. Clipper, Sword and Clamp were all slowly moving through the area together!

Clipper

Sword, Clamp and Clipper at the surface in such beautiful ocean conditions

These are very well-known whales to the area so to see them spending time with one another was certainly a special treat! With some phenomenal looks at these whales we headed to another trio as we watched out in the distance, and a few times once on scene, some breaching! Daffodil, Repeat and Geometry were swimming around together. It was Geometry that continued to be the active whale rolling and flipper slapping the majority of the time we watched this group of whales maneuver around.

Geometry's massive flipper

Repeat, Daffodil and Geometry (flipper in the air)

Humpback whale breach! Thanks GS crew member #0489 for capturing this moment!

To round out an already wonderful day we got a few quick looks at Owl and her calf before heading back to Rye Harbor.

Owl and her calf slowly moving past the boat

This coming weekend is our last weekend for the 2015 season. We hope the weather cooperates so we can get back out there for one last "whale-fix" seeing what/where/who may be spending time in the area!