Wednesday, September 24

Great day today with dozens of harbor porpoises, a pair of fin whales and a total of 8 humpback whales, 6 of which we spent time with!  It was the perfect fall day with a bit of breeze from the north but lots of sunshine.  The pair of fin whales were quite busy, staying under for 9-10 minutes and moving quite a bit while down below. We managed a few quick looks and then continued on to some more spouts in the distance.

Here we found 2 humpbacks, known as Sword and Springboard.   As we were with this pair, we saw more spouts just a bit further out.  This was a group of 4 humpbacks! Amazing!  These 4 included Valley, Sickle, Quote and Buzzard. It has been interesting to us to watch these whales move around the area and form pairs, trios and even quads over the past week. We still have so much to learn about these ocean giants.

Sunday, September 21

The overcast skies didn’t scare away the whales or our passengers today. We had a great trip with 7 different humpback whales, several pods of harbor porpoises and even an ocean sunfish! Our first humpback whale was less than cooperative as it stayed under water for over 17 minutes before reappearing about a mile away. We decided to continue on hoping we would find something else that was spending a bit more time at the surface. Luckily our gamble paid off and we were rewarded with 6 more humpbacks; a trio, a pair and a single.

The trio was made up of whales named Quote, Blackhole and Buzzard. Quote was lifting her flukes high into the air and even did a quick tail-breach near the other two.  Blackhole would twist would she dove, creating a corkscrew. And Buzzard was there observing it all.

Next we found the pair of humpbacks, named Valley and Sickle. These two appeared to be in a resting mode, spending lots of time just floating at the surface before lifting their flukes high into the air to go down for deep dives. Sickle was seemingly playing with seaweed, lifting up her nose with seaweed draped over it.

And on our way home, we were surprised by another whale! This humpback was young, and curious.  It frequently approached the boat and we shut down our engines each time.  We spent about 20 minutes with this whale as we were curious about who it was. We only saw bits of the flukes and it rolled at the surface but upon consulting our resources after the trip, I found that this was Epsom, the current calf of Salt! Salt is one of the most famous whales in the world. She was seen for the first time in the mid-1970’s and was the first whale to be given a name (based on her white-scraped dorsal fin).  She has been seen in the Gulf of Maine nearly every year since.  She was also the first whale to be identified in the Caribbean, giving researchers more insight into the migration routes of this population. She has birthed many calves over the years, including her newest, Epsom!  Although many mother/calf pairs are still together at this time of year, it is not unusual for calves to be weaned a bit early. That seems to be the case for Epsom, who was looking quite plump and happy!  What a great finale to our trip!

Wednesday, Sept 17

What a perfect day! The seas were calm (finally!), the sun was shining, and the whales were plentiful!

We passed by some harbor porpoises on our way out towards Jeffreys Ledge. Before we knew it, we were seeing spouts of large whales in the distance.   The first pair of humpbacks whales we spotted were Pinball and Blackhole! Pinball is a regular favorite, and Blackhole has only been seen a couple of times this year.  Blackhole greeted us by slowly slapping her huge dark flipper on the surface. We aren’t sure what this behavior means but the pair didn’t seem concerned by our presence at all. It is also interesting to note that Blackhole’s flippers are almost all black on the top side. Most humpback whales in the Atlantic Ocean have all-white flippers. The Pacific humpbacks are knows to have flippers resembling Blackhole’s though. 

Blackhole

Blackhole's dark flipper

Pinball showing her muddy nose- evidence of feeding on the bottom!

Pinball

 Next we found another pair of humpback whales identified as Quote and Buzzard. Quote is seen in the area sporadically but Buzzard is a pretty new visitor, only being seen here once before in 2012!  We also spotted a minke whale near this pair. 

Buzzard and Quote

Quote

 As we kept looking around, we kept seeing more spouts! Today’s calm conditions and clear skies certainly helped us to find whales!  Soon we found another pair of humpback whales, Owl and Jabiru! Owl is another old favorite, being seen here nearly every year, and Jabiru is quickly becoming a regular!   

Owl

A fin whale passed by in the distance and suddenly we saw that Quote and Buzzard had joined the pair, at least for a moment. Mystery still surrounds the social behaviors of whales so we aren’t quite sure what happened beneath the waves but soon Owl, Quote and Buzzard took off in one direction, while Jabiru headed off on her own.

We were running a bit short on time but found yet another pair of humpbacks close by. These two were sleeping when we arrived so we cut our engines and just drifted with these two for nearly 20 minutes. It was so calm and peaceful, watching over 2 sleepy humpback whales! Finally these whales woke up and showed us there identities (flukes) and I was over-the-moon excited to see that one was my all-time favorite whale named Spoon! Spoon was the first whale I adopted as a kid and has a reputation of being really big and slow, and we love her for that!  She was first seen in 1977 but we don’t know how old she is since she wasn’t a calf back then. She is likely one of the oldest whales in the Gulf of Maine!

Sleepy Spoon near the boat

Spoon is huge!

Spoon- I love that fluke!

 The whale with Spoon was a male named Chromosome- any ideas how he got his name??

Chromosome

 As we searched around, we saw a hazard to marine life- a balloon! We see lots of trash on the ocean and whenever we can, we pick it up to make the oceans just a little bit cleaner and safer our whales. The balloon picked up by our crew could have been injested by one of our whales, or a turtle, seal, shark, codfish, etc. Marine debris is a huge issue world-wide and we are always happy to do our part and recover some of these items whenever we can.

Another minke whale was spotted in the area and as we headed home we passed more harbor porpoises, a blue shark, a second fin whale and even stopped to get a quick look at a finless minke whale- one that we have been seeing here for the past 4 years!  Such an incredible day! We are always surprised and inspired by each trip’s sightings as we truly never know what we will find each and every day.  And on a personal note, today was my birthday and I can think of no better way to ring in a new decade by spending it on the ocean surrounded by whales, many of which I have been watching for 20 years!

Sunday, September 14

Yay! The day has finally come where we were able to get back out offshore. The weather this past week has been pretty crummy with lots and lots of wind making the ocean quite rough. Finally today the weather was on our side, enough so to get back in search of whales! Whales were out and about and while a few whales seemed to want nothing to do with us (we had 2 Fin whales throughout our travels today that were seen once and then pretty much completely disappeared!) many of the other whales were much more conducive to watch. We started the day with a quick look at a Minke whale before we saw a spout in the distance. While the spout turned out to be an elusive Fin whale while we were awaiting for this baleen whale to resurface we instead found a small group of toothed-whales! A small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins were moving into the area (thanks for the find Scott!).

A few of the small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins in the area today

Dolphins cruising near the boat

We spent time with these whales getting some nice looks before we saw more spouts out in the distance. Once we eventually made our way towards these whales we recognized one of the pair of Humpback whales instantaneously due to her unique dorsal fin. It was Quote, a whale we last saw on August 5th of this year!

We saw Quote almost 20 miles from where we last had this whale over a month ago!

But Quote wasn't alone. Along side this adult female was another adult female, a whale we have yet to see in our area this year, Liner! Great to watch these two large females on the move together.

Liner

Liner's back and dorsal fin

Next we came into an area where we thought we had a few whales which certainly turned out to be the case. Nike the Humpback whale was circling around the area creating a bubble cloud at one point.

Bubble cloud finally reaching the surface of the ocean

While this was happening off the other side of the boat we suddenly had a group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins associated with a Fin whale. Out in the distance was another Humpback whale; you just didn't know where to look. On top of that we ended up checking out more whales including Chromosome logging with another whale and ended the day with Valley and Sickle.

Chromosome

Sickle

Valley's back and wannabe dorsal fin

Whales continue to not only be around but equally as surprising as familiar whale tails continue to be seen along with a few newcomers for the year! Hopefully the weather cooperates for a bit of time so we can get back out on the water again sooner than later.

Sunday, September 7

It was once again quite the day offshore today. This morning we started our trip with a pair of napping whales. Valley and Raccoon spent most of the time we were with them resting at the surface.

Valley

Raccoon and Valley

With some very nice looks at these whales we pressed on to see if we could check out a Fin whale that had been moving around us. We ended up waiting for quite some time before this whale finally took a single breath of air before disappearing below the surface once again. We decided to cut our losses and check out some of the other spouts we were seeing hoping some of the other whales in the area were actually spending more time at the surface rather than below it. It wasn't until I looked back through these images that our rather uncooperative Fin whale of the day was a very familiar whale, it was Comet!

Comet the Fin whale moving through the area

This whale hasn't been seen in our area for a few weeks, and while it was holding its breath for a bit of time, it was great to know this whale ventured back on into our area! We also got a chance to check out a couple of other Humpback whales, including Chablis, before we saw splashing out in the distance.

Chablis' almost all white tail

Suddenly there was a whale jumping clear out of the water. A moment later a second Humpback did the same! Turns out it was Valley and Raccoon who jumped out of the water before Valley started to lobtail and flipper slap.

Valley's tail (left side) while Raccoon is in the process of jumping out of the water!

This activity lasted for a few minutes before low and behold Valley started to nap at the surface once again! Nothing like going from one side of the active spectrum to the other.

Raccoon and Valley once again mellow at the surface

To add to some incredible looks at so many of our whales already this morning we checked out two different Ocean sunfish before ending our trip with a pod of 20-25 Atlantic white-sided dolphins (thanks Gary)! Such a special treat to an already awesome morning.

Ocean sunfish #1

Smaller, darker Ocean sunfish #2

Leaping Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Dolphins!

Dolphin surfacing right alongside the boat

This afternoon was just as full of life. We started the trip with a large Fin whale who was Comet again!

Comet the Fin whale this afternoon

Soon with more spouts in the distance and this whale still spending lots of time below the waterline we checked out more whale activity. A couple of Minke whales and a total of 9 Humpback whales were around. Most of our sightings were moving around in pairs as we spent time watching Owl and Jabiru, Valley and Raccoon, and Chablis and Chromosome.

Humpback whale spouts in the background as a bubble cloud dissipates in the foreground

Owl

Jabiru

Valley and Raccoon

All familiar tails but a few first-time visitors of whales this season! So exciting to see more whales making their way into the area.

Chablis

Welcome to the area for the first time this season Chromosome!

We are into our Fall whale watching schedule so stay tuned for the next time we are out searching for more whales. We will make sure to continue to share our offshore excursions as the season continues!

Moon rising over the harbor after a great day watching wildlife