Saturday, June 20

Several minke whales and a humpback whale were spotted on both trips today! 

This morning we started out with a quick passing look at a harbor seal. Then we passed by a minke whale before finding a humpback whale!  This whale was Sedge, a humpback who has been seen a few times this season already.

Sedge  was taking short dives and then surprised us with a couple of tail-breaches! That's when the whale throws the lower half of its body out of the water, creating a huge splash.  After spending some time with Sedge, we decided to continue our search and found some more minke whales.

One of these minkes was acting elusive at first but then appeared to be curious about the boat. It was a juvenile, based on its small size, and it repeatedly swam along side the bow, similar to how dolphins sometimes will  bow-ride.

We had a bit of time left in the trip so we headed back for a few more minutes with Sedge before heading home.

This afternoon, we started off with some less than cooperative minke whales, making sightings a bit difficult. But then we found a minke who was spending some time on the surface and and came close to the boat!

Not far away we spotted a humpback whale- Sedge once again! Great to see him still hanging out in the area! This afternoon he was blowing some clouds of bubbles to help corral his prey- likely mackerel or herring.   Another minke whale was also close by.

Also, for an added surprise, we spotted a basking shark jumping out of the water nearby! No photos of that split-second activity but at least a few of our passengers witnessed it with me! Such a great day on the ocean! We never know what to expect.

Friday, June 19

We couldn't have asked for better sighting conditions today! Both trips were flat-calm and beautiful. This morning we found lots of minke whales, some more cooperative than others!  At one point we were surrounded by 3 all at once!

This afternoon was filled with several minke whales, too. The first couple were a bit elusive but then our sharp-eyed passengers found us a very nice one! We spent a bit of time with this one:

And as we were waiting, we saw a splash near by. We waited and watched and soon the mystery breacher did it again! It was a basking shark jumping out of the water! So cool!  We tried to get some closer looks but the shark wasn't hanging out at the surface. 

As we headed back to shore, we encountered a small fin waving back and forth- an ocean sunfish! This one was relatively small, about 2 feet in diameter, and we managed to circle around it to get some great views. My photos don't do it justice.

As we neared shore, we spotted another elusive basking shark and a seal! And some of our passengers spotted a couple of harbor porpoises! The variety of life in the area was great!
Thanks for joining us today!

 

 

 

Thursday, June 18

This morning we began heading back to where we had seen whales yesterday until we got word from one of our fishing friends. They had spotted a whale. We altered course and soon saw that tell-tale sign of a whale spout. It was a Humpback whale on the move.

Whale tail

It did not take long to figure out who it was. This whale has a very unique dorsal fin and the tail pattern made for an easy match. Sedge was back in the area!

Sedge's dorsal fin

It has been 13 days since we last saw this whale on Jeffreys Ledge. We did hear this whale was seen on June 8th on the northern edges of the Ledge (by an offshore fishing vessel) but, other than that, this whale's movements has remained a mystery to us since our last sighting. Who knows where this whale has been; maybe other areas of Jeffreys Ledge that we have not been near or perhaps even far off feeding grounds. Nonetheless, it was certainly great to see this whale back in the area.

Sedge

Along with Sedge we also watched a Minke whale moving around the outskirts of this area. Our travels then included attempting to get a quick look at a Fin whale we had seen out in the distance but this whale apparently was not interested in being watched. We spotted another Minke whale on our way home and a few harbor porpoise to wrap up our morning trip. This afternoon the wind and seas kicked up as we headed out to where we had seen Sedge this morning. We were unable to find Sedge but we did check out one of the two Minke whales we spotted nearby.

Minke whale on the move

From there it became a never-ending game. We managed to find ourselves with the constant disappearing act of Minke whales. We would find one Minke whale after another (4 to be exact) but each time we stopped to spend some time with one of our sightings they would disappear with no fail. Nature certainly made things a bit challenging but that is what we do. We go searching for wildlife; animals we cannot control. Instead, we get the opportunity to catch quick glimpses of these amazing whales and see what they decide is in store for us on any given day.

Wednesday, June 17

We did a lot of searching this morning around the Jeffreys Ledge area and eventually our efforts paid off as we got some really nice looks at 3 Minke whales. Our first Minke whale sighting was exciting as this is a whale we saw during our 2011 whale watching season as well!

Minke whale

As our sightings continued, the ocean conditions got nicer and nicer and we got some really great looks at our whales.

Minke whale surfacing

Beautiful calm conditions made for perfect conditions to watch whales

Fin-less Minke whale on our travels home this morning spotted inside the Isles of Shoals

This afternoon we saw 2 Minke whales scooting around as well as a Fin whale. Our large Fin whale (Fin whales are the second largest animals on Earth so these whales really ARE huge) was darting here, there and everywhere. Attempting to keep up with one of the second fastest of the baleen whales in a bit of a chaotic pattern took quite a bit of patience. After some time checking out one of our Minke whales while our Fin whale scurried about we were lucky enough to get some very impressive looks.

Afternoon Minke whale

Fin whale spout

It wasn't until we were checking out our photos on the ride home that we realized this Fin whale was quite a familiar whale. It was Ladder, a Fin whale first sighted by our friends Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation in 1996! What a nice surprise to wrap up our day with out on the open ocean.

Ladder's dorsal fin

Tuesday, June 16

Kudos to our passengers today who worked as hard as we did searching for, spotting and relocating our whales as the fog took its time burning off this morning. Our day included finding whales, losing those whales in the fog and then finding them once again with a bit of patient and some great spotting eyes. We got a chance to see two Minke whales and a mother and calf Fin whale pair; our first for the 2015 season!

Massive mama Fin whale and her calf

Dorsal fins of our Fin whale pair

The weather and whales continue to keep us on our toes so we shall see what exciting factors we will be dealing with on our next trip!

Sunday, June 14

This morning we saw 2 Minke whales and ended up seeing 3 completely different ones this afternoon. If you ever thought all Minke whales look the same check out our photos below to see just how different they really are. We can use the shape of a Minke whale's dorsal fin to tell these mammals apart from one another. Here are all our fins from today:

Like this whale, sometimes it is the lack of dorsal fin we can use to tell Minke whales apart from each other

Friday, June 12

Guess who we found this morning? Our very familiar fin-less Minke whale less than 5 miles from land! Our morning school trip got a chance to check out this unique looking Minke whale and provided a great opportunity to remind us how dangerous the ocean can be to whales; all because of humans. This whale has propeller marks visible on its body, an indication that this whale was hit by a boat at some point during this its life.

Lack-of-dorsal-fin Minke whale swimming from left to right. If you look toward the left part of this whale's body you can see the indentations of a prior boat propeller incident.

We are of course extremely grateful this whale survived this incident and while we do not know how/why this whale lost its dorsal fin we are always happy to see a familiar whale in the area especially when you keep in mind not all whales survive these human-related interactions.  Further offshore we also got to check out our first sighting of an Ocean Sunfish for the year. Definitely a fun fish to see.

Ocean Sunfish swimming towards us

Ocean sunfish

This afternoon we decided to check out some other areas of Jeffreys Ledge where whales are known to spend time. While we did a lot of searching we came up empty-handed for any whale activity. We did however get a chance to swing by Boon Island during our travels and take a look at some Harbor seals on the rocks around this island this afternoon.

Seals hauled out on the rocks at Boon Island (above and below)