July 9-10, 2025

Wednesday morning's trip began quick with our first sighting taking place just under an hour after we left Rye. We started off with Clamp the humpback whale, who was spending much of her time travelling near the surface, occasionally diving and even leaving some evidence of feeding as bubble clouds rose up towards the surface. 

Clamp diving

Whilst following Clamp, we spotted a couple of distant blows, so we pressed on to investigate. Eventually, this was revealed to be two fin whales, circling the area in close proximity to one another. 

Fin whale diving

One of these fin whales was much more mellow, while the other was doing an excellent job of giving us the slip, such is the nature of these trips as we're out watching wild animals. We eventually made our way back towards Rye, passing through the Isles of Shoals, where we were passed by a black guillemot (a cousin of the puffin) carrying some sort of prey in its mouth that we have yet to identify. Let us know if you have any idea what it could be!

Black guillemot carrying clam worm??

Wednesday afternoon started with us pressing back out towards where we had found success in the morning. Once there, our first sightings came in the form of two individual fin whales, at least one of them being a whale that we had encountered on the morning trip. 

Fin whale

After spending time with the two fin whales, we pressed on just a bit further east, where we met back up with our friend from the morning, Clamp the humpback whale. This whale was spending much of her time navigating around vessels fishing for bluefin tuna, which also feed on the same small schooling fish as many of our large whales.

Humpback diving

After saying goodbye to Clamp, we moved back to the west towards a pair of fin whales, which I had assumed to be the same two that we started our trip with, but were now associated, instead of swimming around alone. I quickly found out that I was incorrect in my assumption as these were revealed to be two entirely different whales that had entered the area. We got absolutely incredible looks at both of these whales as we shut our engines off and they turned in towards us during multiple surfacings.

Fin whale pair next to boat

Thursday morning was canceled due to rough weather in the morning, but had become nice enough for us to head out offshore for our afternoon trip. In recent trips, we have been fortunate enough to encounter whales not too long after passing by the Isles of Shoals, and that luck continued this afternoon as we spent time with multiple different fin whales after only an hour of travel.

Fin whale diving

We were able to spend time with two individual fin whales before pressing a ways to the south, where we came across a fin whale mother/calf pair! This is actually the third time this year we have seen these animals. Definitely atypical for us to encounter fin whale mother/calf pairs repeatedly in a season.

Calf checking us out!

While the fin whale mom was spending a decent amount of time beneath the surface, the calf spent a good amount of time circling around the boat and checking us out. Always super special when we see the whales taking just as much interest in us as we are in them!

Mother and calf diving

July 7-8, 2025

We only had morning trips on Monday and Tuesday. While the whales were quite far from home on Monday, we got some really nice looks once we got there. We checked out a few minke whales (we saw 4 in total!) along with a fin whale. 

Minke whale

The minke whales were circling, popping up on either side of the boat. The fin whale was steadily on the move, smoothly moving through the wind and waves.

Fin whale (above and below)

On Tuesday a swell was present, but the winds were calm offshore. The fog began to clear; everything was on the up and up. Then the whales popped up. Kudos to our Blue Ocean Society intern, Liam, for spotting our first whale of the day. It was a fin whale. Turns out, there were two in the area! 

Fin whale

Fin whales are sooooo large

We checked out both of these whales, then saw a pair of fin whales. It turns out that one of our single whales had grouped up with a different whale in the area. We watched this newly formed pair circle around the area before venturing in search of more marine life. We ended up seeing an ocean sunfish and two more fin whales, making for five different fin whales for the trip. 

This subsurface blob is an ocean sunfish :)

Fin whale white lower jaw

One of the many fin whales seen today was sighted earlier this week and was a frequent visitor to the area last August and September. So cool!

Familiar fin whale sighted numerous times last season

July 5-6, 2025

Saturday was a fin whale kind of day. We spent both trips watching some of the second-largest animals on Earth! In the morning, we attempted to check out our first fin whale of the day, but this whale was spending most of its time under the water. 

Fin whale

We pressed on further offshore and ended up spending time with two other fin whales. One was #0520, a whale we've seen a few times already this season. 

Fin whale #0520

In addition to fin whales, we spotted three basking sharks. Not only did we see the second-largest animals on Earth, but we also saw some of the second-largest sharks in the world! Awesome. 

Basking shark

On Sunday, our first sighting of the trip was a mother-calf fin whale pair! We don't often get a chance to see fin whale mother-calf pairs, so we were thrilled.

Fin whale mom and the tip of the calf's snout at the surface

Fin whale calf

What was even more impressive was the calf. This whale was inquisitive as it swam circles around its mom and us, multiple times! Stunning looks at this "tiny tike." 

Fin whale calf surfacing next to the boat, above and below (our engines were shut off as this whale approached us)

After leaving this pair, we checked out a couple of minke whales before finding yet another fin whale for the day.

Mink whale

Look how uniquely shaped this fin whale's dorsal fin is!

While Saturday was full of fin whales, on Sunday we watched humpback whales. On our morning trip, we were fortunate to watch two humpback whales, Clamp followed by Cupid. 

Humpback whale at the surface

Clamp diving

Both whales were creating bubble clouds as we watched them move through the waves. On our afternoon trip, we spent time watching Highlighter the humpback whale. This whale was so mellow, it spent most of its time near the surface, allowing for us to get some great looks.

Humpback whale spout

July 3-4, 2025

 Thursday morning was off to a great start with glassy, calm conditions. As we made our way offshore, we began our trip with quick looks at a fin whale and a minke whale, both of which were being fairly elusive. After continuing along, we eventually moved into an area where several humpback whales were spending time, most definitely capitalizing on the huge amounts of baitfish that we (at the very least) could see near the surface. We spent much of our time following one particularly surface active humpback, Gremlin.

Surface feeding humpback

While watching this whale, we were also able to get quick looks as other humpback whales passed us by, including Quote and Clamp. There were other whales in the area that we were looking to document, so we said goodbye to Gremlin and continued slowly through the area. As we were approaching a distant pair of whales, Captain Pete noticed something creating a wake near the surface off our starboard side. We slowed down and let it approach us...

GREAT WHITE SHARK

We couldn't contain our excitement as this fish approached us and revealed itself to be a white shark! I had initial doubts based off the size of the shark, which was only about 5-6 feet long. White sharks are born at 4-5 feet long, so this shark is most definitely a juvenile. It stayed near the surface for a long time before we had to continue along towards our pair of whales. Eventually, we made our way closer, these humpbacks revealing themselves to be Tripod and Chromosome.

Humpback whale pair

We spent a few surfacing's with these whales before we had to make our way back towards Rye. Looking forward to whatever the afternoon had to offer.

We always tell people that no two whale watches are the same, and that was especially true Thursday afternoon. We made our way back out towards where we had found success in the morning, but the area was almost entirely deprived of life near the surface. Other whale watching vessels searched to our south and east, nothing turning up. So we considered ourselves lucky that our friends from Newburyport had a whale nearby that we were able to view once they pressed on. 

Humpback whale diving

Now, let me tell you, that whatever we may have lacked in quantity of whales, we most certainly did not lack in quality! We spent a vast majority of our afternoon getting looks at a humpback whale known as Cupid. For almost the entirety of the time we spent with this whale, it put in an impressive display of feeding behaviors at the surface for all to see.

Cupid lunging at surface

Cupid, upside down, filtering out saltwater

This whale did not let up with its feeding frenzy until it was time for us to continue along. We found ourselves doing a bit more searching, but ultimately ending up with our single sighting to finish the afternoon.

Friday morning began with a fairly significant breeze which we weren't expecting. No matter though, we had whales to see. On our way out towards the ledge, we got our first sighting in the form of an ocean sunfish!

Ocean sunfish

After some quick looks, we pressed on further until we came across a fin whale. This whale was initially fairly predictable in its surfacing's, but quickly became more elusive.

Fin whale diving

We eventually decided to let our fin whale continue on with its day. We did a whole lot more travelling after that. Ultimately, ending up just off the coast of Cape Ann, where we found more whales in the form of two humpbacks, Yurt and Cupid. 

Humpback whale diving

These whales were swimming independently of one another, but both displaying similar surface feeding behaviors. After getting some excellent looks, we started our long journey back towards home.

Friday afternoon began with us heading to where we had found luck with humpbacks in the morning, but ending up stopping that journey short, due to a sighting of a humpback whale on our way. This whale was Clamp, mother of one of our humpbacks in the morning, Cupid (Cupid was born almost a decade ago, so no longer a calf). 

Clamp diving

We spent a majority of the afternoon with Clamp. There were several occasions where we had to turn off our engines as this whale would make a turn in towards us before diving right off of either side of the boat.

Clamp diving next to boat

After a good while, we said our goodbyes to Clamp. We did a bit more searching, but were unable to locate any more whales. We are ready to give the weekend our all!

July 2, 2025

Overcast skies kept the UV index a little lower today, but always wear sunscreen!

This morning, we passed by some harbor porpoises and stumbled upon an ocean sunfish, showing off this “interesting” fish.

Then we saw a blow in the distance. The humpback whale wasn’t fluking often, but we could tell who it was just by the small propeller scars on its flank. Yurt! This whale was feeding on pogies (also known as menhaden or bunker) and surfaced close by a few times!

As we were heading to a reported sighting a bit further south, we were surprised to find a pair of humpback whales feeding on pogies at the surface! 

This pair was Tripod and Chromosome- the dynamic duo who were seen together often back in 2008, I believe. I’ll have to check my notes for the specific year. Not only were these 2 feeding together, but they were also being escorted by a dozen Atlantic white sided dolphins! Fantastic!

On our way home, we saw more blows ahead of us. Valley, Gremlin and Spika were moving around quite a bit, but we got good enough views of them to figure out who they were.

The afternoon trip was a little more difficult in finding the whales. We began our trip with some harbor porpoises, an ocean sunfish, bluefin tuna and a big basking shark! Not a bad start, but it took us quite a while to find a large whale. Eventually we found a humpback and were elated to see that it was Patches, the whale that adorns the cover of our brochure!

A sneaky minke whale was in the area, and then it was time to head home. But our day was not over yet! We found Valley again on our way home!

And then, the best sighting of the day (IMO) was a porbeagle shark rubbing on a branch! The shark was not at all deterred by our presence, and we watched it for several minutes, close to our boat! Sharks generally are pretty shy, so to see this one so close for so long was really quite a treat! I will attempt to share a video of the encounter soon, so check back!

The ocean critters are always surprising us!

June 30 - July 1, 2025

The seas on Monday morning were stunning. Barely a breath of wind and visibility in every direction. Beautiful conditions to find whales! During our search, we saw a total of five basking sharks! 

Can to find the basking shark?

We also enjoyed a look at a fin whale, one the Blue Ocean Society first sighted in our area in 2005; wow. 

Fin whale (above and below)

Our morning sightings finished with a pair of humpback whales - Tripod and Chromosome. 

Chromosome

On Monday afternoon, our first stop was in an area where three fin whales surfaced around us. 

Fin whale

Unfortunately, shortly after they surfaced, all three of them disappeared. Well, that's not very helpful. So we pressed on offshore and came across Owl, the humpback whale. This whale was napping most of the time we spent with her. Shortly after starting for home, we had to quickly turn around. Owl woke up! This whale started tail breaching and lobtailing. 

Distant lobtail

Impressive behaviors even to see from a distance. Luckily for us, she continued with these incredible behaviors as we made our way back to the area.

Owl flipper slapping

We only had a morning trip on Tuesday. The varying levels of fog slowly lifted as we made our way offshore. We came across a humpback whale who was occasionally making bubble clouds shortly before surfacing. 

Humpback whale

While watching this whale, a fin whale popped up! We shifted our efforts to this massive whale as it moved through the area before turning back to the humpback whale still circling the area.

Fin whale

Humpback whale diving