June 19-20, 2024

Wednesday morning, we found several humpback whales who were feeding at the surface! Lots of bubble clouds, lots of whales coming up with mouths full of water and fish! We even saw a mother with her calf, and although the calf is too young to be feeding on fish, it was mimicking its mom, coming up right next to her in the same way! So cute! A brief look at a basking shark rounded out the trip.

Wednesday afternoon, a humpback whale was seen close to the Isles of Shoals, just 5 miles off the coast! Most of our sightings are at least 10 miles from the harbor, so this was a surprise! Then the whale started blowing bubble clouds and charging up through them with its mouth wide open!  

Next, we found a fin whale who was also feeding at the surface and lunging sideways through patches of small fish and krill! We haven’t seen fin whales feeding this way in years! Amazing! 

And lastly, we found another humpback whale taking short dives and even tail-breached once! After we left, some of our group saw the whale breach out of the water head first! What a great day!

 

Thursday morning, several fin whales were spotted offshore. Two of them were matched to our local catalog as being Bp #0402 and Bp #0518! I love it when we are able to match these huge creatures!

As we continued along, we found a group of about 50 Atlantic white-sided dolphins including lots of newborn calves!

Then as we approached southern Jeffreys Ledge, we saw multiple humpbacks including our Adoptable Whale, Pinball and a mom/calf pair of humpbacks! The calf even breached!

Then we saw a large basking shark and a harbor seal on our way home! Another great day on the water!

June 18, 2024

  Yesterday we were treated to two fantastic trips! Our morning trip was kicked off with a very mellow group of around 100 Atlantic white-sided dolphins, which actually led us to encounter a basking shark! This shark was swimming forward with it's mouth wide open, hopefully capturing lots of plankton. 

                                                   Atlantic white-sided dolphins                                             

Basking Shark

Not long after continuing along we came across our first pair of fin whales for the morning. These whales were the first of SEVEN fin whales we encountered throughout our trip! 

Fin whale pair

At the southernmost point of our journey, we encountered four different humpback whales. First getting to spend some time with Satula as he did some travelling through the area, before happening across Clamp and her 2024 calf! While Clamp was very busy searching for schools of fish down beneath the surface, we got to turn our engines off and spend some time with her new calf as it circled around our boat before ultimately meeting back up with its mother. 

  Clamp showing off her tail flick!

                                        
                                                                    

Clamp's '24 Calf passing us by

On our way back towards Rye Harbor we got a quick look at a humpback known as GOM 1827, yet another basking shark, and even our first ocean sunfish of the season!

          Ocean Sunfish

Our afternoon trip took us straight out to the southern tip of Jeffrey's Ledge with no distractions. Once there however, the action didn't let up. The next several hours were spent travelling between eight different humpback whales, almost all of whom were feeding beneath the surface, evident by the bubble clouds left behind as well as their ventral pleats bellowing outwards after surfacing. The first three whales we encountered in close proximity to one another have been identified as Whirlwind, GOM 1753, and Boathook. 

  GOM 1753 and Boathook surfacing together

The other five humpbacks were hanging out a little ways south, making us dizzy as we spun our heads in circles trying to watch them surface in all directions, all the while, three different fin whales also passed through the area. Once our heads were back on straight, we were able to ID all of our humpbacks as Diablo, Pinball, Seadog, Picket, and Evolution.  

     Diablo diving

   Seadog diving

   Pinball diving

      Fin whale passing by

Not long after saying goodbye to all of our whales on the ledge, we got some quick looks at a basking shark before it headed further down into the depths of the ocean. 

Two wildly different trips making for one incredible day! 

June 16, 2024

Apologies for not updating our website with recent sightings! Our crew has experienced several personal misfortunes over the past few weeks, leaving us scrambling to keep up. But don’t worry! The sightings have been fantastic, with several groups of huge fin whales, lots of new humpback whales, and even some basking sharks!

This morning, June 16, we found five fin whales (all solitary) and four humpback whales (including Bayou and her calf), as well as a small pod of harbor porpoises and a breaching basking shark.

 

Humpback mom/calf pair

Fin whale

The afternoon trip found a trio of fin whales, with at least two more in the area, as well as five humpback whales, including Dash-Dot, Dome, and Entropy.

 

Diving humpback whale

Two fin whales!

Fin whale

Whale spout

Humpback whale

We are still waiting on the fin whale ID’s, but stay tuned! 

June 1-2, 2024

 Saturday, June 1, 2024

Heading out to Jeffreys Ledge, we stopped on a few small pods of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. Several times, groups of 3-4 swam up to the boat, and even under our pulpit, delighting all on board! The seas were glassy calm, so we got great views of their unique coloration even underwater.

Shortly after, we came across a group of three humpback whales! The trio wasn’t familiar to us, and a couple of them appeared to be on the smaller size. But it’s nearly impossible to estimate age based on size. These whales surfaced close to us and even went under the boat before starting to feed. 

The trip was amazing, with perfect weather, too! After the trip was over, we consulted our resources and identified the humpback whales as Scorpio, Halloween and the recent calf of Bounce.

 

Sunday, June 2, 2024

Sunday’s trip covered a lot of territory! We started out by going to southern Jeffreys Ledge. We stopped on a fin whale that was less than cooperative, but while we waited for it, we found a huge basking shark! We then stopped on a different fin whale that had other things on its mind. Then, we got a report of a whale in a different direction. We headed up the ledge and saw a fin whale that we finally got decent looks at! The second-largest animal on the planet is amazing to see, especially when it stays up for more than one breath! 

Our crew today had over 100 years of combined experience searching for whales (that means we are old!), and it took every inch of our beings to show our guests a whale! Sometimes, we need to be humbled by the wild animals that we love to watch and who are really the ones in charge of each adventure.

 

May 25-26, 2024

The 2024 season has arrived! The salt air and cool ocean temperatures reminded us of what we have been waiting for since last season. It seems like ages, and yet, just moments, since we were last out on our public trips. This weekend, we enjoyed seeing many familiar faces and newcomers wanting to share in the wild aspect of whale watching in the Jeffreys Ledge area. On Saturday, we started with a large pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, approximately 75 in total. These zippy creatures were mesmerizing. 

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Throughout our travels, we spotted four pods of these toothed whales! Before turning for home, we came across a large fin whale. 

Fin whale

Thanks to Blue Ocean Society's Data Coordinator, Kaela, she matched our fin whale to a whale first documented in this area in 2012!

Fin whale #1256

On Sunday, the trip started with a minke whale before spotting a few small pods of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. 

Minke whale

The wind was minimal, so the surrounding scenery of the water throughout our travels was stunning. Thanks to our fellow whale-watching friends, we also got the chance to spend time with two humpback whales - Grommet and Wish. 

Pair of humpback whales

These humpback whales were not spending long intervals below the surface and even were sighted filtering, an active sign of feeding! 

Humpback whales filtering

Humpback whale tail

The trip wrapped up with our first basking shark of the season! Nothing like a variety of marine life to start off the 2024 season. Our next whale watches are next weekend, so stay tuned for updates!

Basking shark

October 4 and 6, 2023

Wednesday, after some searching, our mate Matt saw a blow to the east. We headed that way, and then our intern Hannah relocated the blow nearby. Three humpback whales were hanging out together!! The first was easy to ID based on the large scar on her back- Owl!! Sword and Clamp were hanging out with her! These three were taking short dives and slowly moving to the west. Clamp did her signature move- the high fluke tail flick! 

Clamp's high fluke tail flick!

Sword was low-fluking and looked pretty tiny compared to the two large females! For baleen whales, including humpback whales, the males are generally smaller than the females. 

Clamp and Sword

After watching this trio for a bit, we decided to check out another area nearby with no success, so we headed back to the trio. At this point, they had dispersed a bit, with Owl and Clamp still in the immediate area and Sword seen briefly before he took off. The groupings of humpback whales are often ephemeral. We were lucky to see all three side by side for a short time!

Three humpbacks with their rain-blows!

Oh, and at some point during the trip, we saw Sword and Clamp together, but Owl wasn't with them. We sat still and waited, and then out of the depths, Owl surfaced just feet from the boat and dove right next to us!! She even pooped while doing so!! Oh, Owl, we love you so! Thank you for fertilizing the ocean farm of plankton! 

Friday, the fog blew in from the east as we were boarding the boat. Fog is a whale watcher's worst nightmare. If we have no visibility, finding whales is next to impossible (although we have had luck in the past!).  Fortunately, the fog came and went and was patchy for most of the day. A blue shark stayed at the surface just long enough for most of us to see! Then, we got a report of a humpback whale feeding nearby in a clear patch, so we headed that way. Clamp was there doing her funky version of lobtail feeding, and surfacing with her mouth wide open! Amazing looks! We could even see the small mackerel jumping out of the water, trying to escape her jaws!  Poor little mackerel...

        

After a bit, we left her to feed in peace and continued on to find another humpback whale, Satula, also surface feeding! He was using bubble clouds to concentrate his prey and also surfacing with his mouth open! Satula isn't known for many behaviors besides pooping, so we were surprised to see him surface feeding! Even our regular whales can surprise us! While Satula was chasing around his lunch, a school of bluefin tuna appeared right off our bow! These large fish are fast, and usually all we see of them is the white water splashes they make. 

We had a little time left in the trip to explore one more area before heading home. There, we found Victim, our 3rd humpback of the day.

On our way home, we passed a minke whale and a grey seal! We totally lucked out on this foggy Friday!

Today was our last whale watch of the season. We canceled the weekend trips due to bad weather. Thanks to all who joined us this season! Winter well, and we hope to see you, and the whales, again next year!

September 30 - October 1, 2023

The last day of September was cloudy, a little brisk, breezy and rocky out on the water. We spent our time watching humpback whale Victim, steadily on the move. While we may have been feeling the motion of the ocean, whales certainly can slip through the water so gracefully. Such beautiful creatures.

Victim, the humpback whale

Sunday, the winds had subsided, but the ocean was still holding a good amount of energy through the swells offshore. Victim was seen again, but she was back alongside Partition, a pair that's been seen regularly together over the past week. 

Pair of humpback whales

We also got a chance to spend time with two other humpback whales: Owl and Chromosome. 

We are into our final week of the 2023 season. Fingers crossed for good weather so we can enjoy these wild animals on all our scheduled trips!