Friday, September 16

Want to know what is amazing? Nature. Want to know what is even more amazing? Spending so much quality time with that nature. Today was a great day. Yes we saw whales but more so than that, at times, we found ourselves just sitting tight as whales swam by and around us. Experiencing a moment in a whale's world, watching them meander around, is truly just fantastic. Before we even got to the whales today we stopped to check out an Ocean sunfish.

Ocean sunfish swimming alongside the boat

This fish was just slowly on the move. As we continued to head offshore we saw whales breaching in the distance. Not just one but two! While these whales persisted with this behavior for a bit they ceased this activity by the time we got into the area.

Distant look at a breaching Humpback whale

No worries though, it was still impressive to watch these whales launch themselves clear out of the water. Overall the day included 6 Humpback whales, including two different mother/calf pairs, and a Fin whale. We started with Gunslinger traveling along rarely showing its tail as it was diving.

Gunslinger the Humpback whale

Eventually we moved on to Victim and her calf. These two whales were not moving much at all giving us a great opportunity to get some great looks at this pair.

Victim and her calf

Victim's tail

As we were spending time with this pair of Humpback whales suddenly a spout and body from a Fin whale appeared in the area! This whale ended up circling around us a few times allowing for a phenomenal comparison of sizes between a 'medium'-sized Humpback whale and one of the second largest animals on Earth, a Fin whale. We were able to identify our Fin whale which was first sighted in this area in 2007.

Fin whale #0723

Not only did we have this Fin whale appear out of nowhere but another Humpback whale passed by us too. Jabiru surfaced for only a short while nearby before this whale seemingly disappeared just as easily as it had appeared. Before heading for home we went to investigate a few more exhalations we were keeping track of. Turns out we came across a trio of Humpback whales! And guess who was in the mix? Jabiru had joined up with Ravine and her calf!

Jabiru

The dorsal fins of Ravine, her 2016 calf and Jabiru all at the surface

All three whales were slowly swimming along. On our course home we had one more quick stop as Victim's calf was being a bit active as we were passing through the area. We saw a few tail breaches and lob tails. What a fantastic way to end an already great day with wildlife.

Sometimes all you have to do is take the time to look to see what amazing things you can find in your 'backyard.' The modern world in the background is just the backdrop to this tail-breaching calf.

Wednesday, Sept 14

It is starting to feel like autumn whale watching! Sightings are more unpredictable, but not in a bad way at all! We love the surprise of seeing new whales, larger dolphin pods and who knows what else!   This morning we passed by some harbor porpoises before spotting a big pod of curious Atlantic white sided dolphins.  

Then we saw a blow from a humpback whale nearby. This was Jabiru, a familiar favorite of mine. As we waited for Jabiru to reappear, a harbor seal and ocean sunfish came up close to us! We spent some time with the ocean sunfish before catching up with Jabiru. 

Next we found another humpback whale named Fulcrum. She has a serious injury to her dorsal fin, caused by the propeller of a boat. The injury is over 10 years old and she is doing great, producing several calves in the past decade.   

Today was our first sighting of her here near Jeffreys all season. A few minke whales were seen near and far, and then we saw a couple of big splashes in the distance.  A breaching whale! We always hope to see a whale jumping out of the ocean but in reality, it is a rare occurrence.  Today we lucked out! Humpback whale Victim’s calf was very active, jumping, rolling, flipper slapping and tail-breaching!   

Although it took us nearly the entire sighting to confirm Victim's identity, thankfully we have a crew of whale experts who made this possible! 

Then the pair settled down and just hang out alongside us. Absolutely beautiful!  Today was our first sighting of Victim this season as well. Our last sighting of her in our area was last October, when she appeared quite large- apparently pregnant!  What a great surprise!

Saturday, September 10

The post-Labor Day influx of new whales continues! Today we saw a humpback whale named Chromosome for the first time in a while! Shuffleboard and Geometry were still in the neighborhood, which is a happy relief as we never know what whales will do (or go) after a storm.   Patches, who was seen yesterday, was still in the area, as was a new-ish visitor who we have yet to identify. In addition to the humpbacks, we spotted several minke whales, 2 pods of harbor porpoises, 2-3 seals and even an ocean sunfish!

Friday, September 9

We have FINALLY returned from the hiatus known as Hermine! With the large swells finally subsiding you can imagine how much we were itching to get back out on the water. Well today was that day full of minimal wind and just a bit of a leftover swell now that Hermine decided to depart the East Coast. It was a Superfecta day of sightings today! Lots to see though some whales were behaving better than others. Among the multiple harbor seals and even blue shark we spotted today we also saw 4 Minke whales, 3 Humpback whales, 2 Fin whales and a pod of 60 Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

Tip of a Blue shark's dorsal fin is most prevalent in this image

Many of our Minke whales were the first sightings of the day before eventually catching up to some sneaky larger species nearby.

Minke whale

Geometry the Humpback whale was slowly moving along before we eased our way over to a pair of Humpback whales.

Geometry the Humpback whale

It was Shuffleboard and a new visitor for the season. A familiar tail, Patches, has decided to swim into our area!

Patches and Shuffleboard swimming in tandem

What a fun surprise to find Patches around especially since this whale is the whale on the front of our brochure! We spent a bit of time with these whales but soon got reports of more activity moving through the area we didn't want to miss.

Humpback whale tail

Thanks to our fishing buddies (many thanks guys!) we got a chance to spend time with a group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins.

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

We see you and you probably see us!

As is typical with these fast-paced toothed-whales they were on the move so we continued to maneuver the boat allowing these whales to lead us wherever they were heading today. But then POOF guess what suddenly showed up? A massive Fin whale! Soon there were 2 Fin whales moving independently from each other but right through the mix of dolphins!

Sleek and massive sliver of a Fin whale body while a dolphin surfaces close by

The Fin whales were being impressively sneaky, not only showing up so unexpectedly but also disappearing just as magically. These whales did not show much of themselves, minus a random roll by one of our Fin whales(!), before we found ourselves once again moving along with our toothed-whale variety.

Synchrony at its finest

After almost a week of not being on the water it was great to stretch our 'legs' again and get offshore. However, just is the case no matter what the day, who knows what tomorrow may have in store for us.

Saturday, September 3

As Tropical Storm Hermine approaches New England, we were thrilled to have one more day of calm seas before she arrives.  The calm before the storm, so to speak!  We were treated to harbor porpoises, harbor seals, minke, humpback and fin whales today!  Quite the variety on both trips! Some highlights were seeing 2 humpback whales together on both trips, and a pair of fin whales on afternoon trip. Minke whales were darting all over, often surprising us by their close approaches!  Although we won’t be whale watching for the next couple of days, we hope the whales stick around!

Morning fin whale

Morning fin whale blow holes

humpback whale

Humpback whale

Humpback whale

Afternoon fin whale

Afternoon humpback

Humpbacks

Friday, September 2

It was starting to feel like fall, weather-wise, today. The northerly wind brought some cool air and wavy seas to our whale watchers.  However, the whales didn't seem to mind at all!  We found the hot spot with 5 fin whales and a couple of minke whales. Two of the fin whales were synchronizing their dives together while a third fin whale would surface at nearly the same time as the pair, but just a bit further away.  We watched this group for over an hour before heading off to search for another whale that had been reported. Alas, we could not find this other whale. Wild animals move around a lot! The ride home was much calmer than the ride out and we ended up with a beautiful afternoon.

Minke whale

Fin whale's tall dorsal fin

Fin whale's injured dorsal fin

Fin whale spout

2 fin whales just beyond the Isles of Shoals

Thursday, September 1

Happy September! As the season continues to fly by we continue to enjoy all the marine life residing (at least for the moment) in the Jeffreys Ledge region. Today we had perfect, and I mean PERFECT, conditions for spotting marine life. The ocean was as calm as calm could be so any ripple in the water was usually some sort of marine creature close by. In total, we saw 1 Ocean sunfish, 5 harbor seals, 1 grey seal, 6 Minke whales, 5 Fin whales and a dispersed pod of 200 Atlantic white-sided dolphins! Our first stop of the day was on an Ocean sunfish just past the Isles of Shoals.

The fin of an Ocean sunfish with Appledore Island in the background

While the cloudy skies made it a little tricky to see down into the water as this large fish meandered around, it was a great find to start our day. With our next stop we found ourselves surrounded by more and more life the longer we remained. Seals were popping up around us, Minke whales were surfacing here and there, massive Fin whales were moving sleekly through the water and on top of all of that was a HUGE group of dolphins! We checked out everything at one point or another.

Grey seal

Minke whale

Atlantic white-sided dolphins swimming in such a calm ocean today

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Just a sliver of a Fin whale's body at the surface

While the dolphins were generally on the move there were lots of sub-pods scattered around, and during a few times we were fortunate to see the white-sided dolphins and Fin whales swimming together.

Massive Fin whale and a couple 'tiny' dorsal fins of dolphins (on the left)

It was a beautiful day, full of fantastic life, and a great way to start September!

Dolphins!

Fin whale