Thursday, August 27

Today we were fortunate enough to have beautiful ocean conditions and some beautiful whale activity. We saw 3 Minke whales, a Fin whale and two Humpback whales throughout our time offshore today. After some searching we watched a large Fin whale cruise by us before we began watching one of the 2 Humpback whales in the area. Our Fin whale has a distinctive dorsal fin shape and we were able to match it to a whale that was first seen by our research affiliates, Blue Ocean Society, in 2003!

Fin whale #0354 on the move this afternoon

As we moved onto our first Humpback whale this whale spent almost the entire time we were in the area circling around us.

Humpback whale in pristine ocean conditions

This whale was circling around so much that we ended up sitting with our engines shut off for the majority of the time. We watched this whale move in, towards and past the boat so many times!

#0050 swam so close to the boat as it moved through the water

#0050 diving in towards the boat

As we watched this whale a second Humpback whale was moving through the area. After a bit more time with our first Humpback whale, #0050, we made our way over to the other one.

If you look closely you can see a Minke whale out in the distance (on the left) as our Humpback was moving around (on the right) in this photo

One of the 3 Minke whale seen on our trip today

Our second Humpback whale was being much more relaxed than #0050. This whale was surfacing for a few breaths and then just barely bringing its tail to the surface.

It almost looked like slow-motion when our Humpback whale dove each time

We watched this whale slowly move through the area until we realized we were once again surrounded by both of our Humpback whales. #0050 continued to circle and create bubble clouds while this other whale was slowly on the move. After a bit of time checking out this whale's unique markings we figured out exactly who was here. We had a new visitor to the area this season, Geometry!

Geometry

We got a few more looks at both of our whales before easing our way out of the area and heading for home. What a nice way to spend the day, most of the time shut down, enjoying these wild animals go about their day.

Wednesday, August 26

A gorgeous day to spend time on the ocean and check out some awesome marine life. Today we saw 3 Ocean sunfish, 4 Minke whales (including on surface feeding!), a Blue shark and 3 Humpback whales. Calm seas and lots to look at that is for sure!

Ocean sunfish checking us out!

First whale of the day, a Minke whale

After checking out our first Minke whale seen inshore of the Isles of Shoals we next stopped on a Minke whale actively feeding on the surface.

Dorsal fin of the Minke whale surface feeding

Open mouth of our Minke whale above the waterline!

I personally have never actually seen this behavior from a Minke whale before so this was extremely impressive to watch, at least from my standpoint.

 Minke whale's mouth slightly agape with the baleen plates visible hanging from the upper jaw!

Mouth closed as our Minke whale captures plenty of fish!

This whale appeared to be maneuvering around the outskirts of a "field" of fish scales. Larger boats (want to clarify that this "field" was not left by any charter fishing boats in the area) had one way or another left a massive area of fish scales and fish floating at the surface.

All that white matter is actually fish scales; not foam from any whitewater!

Looks like our Minke whale may have been taking the opportunity to scoop up the fish we were seeing all around us. Our next stop was a Humpback whale we were seeing out in the distance. It was #0050. We got some phenomenal looks at this whale as it spent the majority of its time circling around the area.

Humpback whale #0050

#0050 swam right past the boat at one point!

We then moved on to another Humpback whale in the area but before long we realized there was yet another close by. Within minutes all three Humpback whales have moved in towards each other before partially separating once again! Mogul and Highlighter had moved into the area before we ultimately ended our time with #0050 and Mogul maneuvering around in synchrony.

Highlighter (left) and Mogul (right) heading off in different directions from one another

Highlighter

We shall see what we come across tomorrow as we head back offshore in search of some incredible marine mammals!

Monday, August 24

Over the past few days we have been dealing with plenty of weather including rain, fog, mist and wind. Sometimes the list feels like it goes on and on and not in a good direction. Today however, things moved in the opposite direction. We started with some fog and cloudy skies but visibility continued to improve, giving us a better chance to see further away, and thus being able to find whales further out in the distance! We got the chance to see 5 Minke whales, 2 Ocean sunfish and 2 Humpback whales today.

Minke whale

While there were a couple of Fin whales out in the distance we had a tough time relocating them once we were in the area so instead we checked out the other types of whales that were spending a bit more time at the surface. Our Minke whales were circling all around as at one point we had 2 Minke whales darting around our boat at the same time.

Minke whale passing by the boat

We also checked out 2 Ocean sunfish spending some time at the surface.

We have been seeing plenty of Ocean sunfish on our trips recently, including this one seen today

Along with these ocean creatures we also spent time with 2 Humpback whales. First #0050 and then Highlighter.

Humpback whale #0050

Highlighter

Both whales were circling around the area, making some tight turns at the surface, giving us some spectacular looks as they maneuvered close to us multiple times.

Close look at a Humpback whale as it circled around the area

We shall see what the whales and weather have in store for us tomorrow!

Saturday, August 22

The northeast breeze and bouncy seas didn’t deter our adventurous whale watchers today. Our expert crew found 4 humpback whales, a small pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins, an ocean sunfish a harbor seal and several minke whales!  This is one dedicated crew- even one of our captains came out to watch whales on his day off! We did the math, and between the captain, two mates, naturalist and relief captain, we have 97 combined years of whale watching experience! Yes, we really do love what we do!

The morning humpbacks included Patches (who is featured on the cover of our brochure!), Mogul and Highlighter together, and Quote nearby.  

ocean sunfish

 The group of dolphins was a bit tricky to get looks at but the ocean sunfish was very cooperative!  The harbor seal was snoozing at first, exhibiting a behavior known as “bottling” which is when the seal sits vertically in the water with just the tip of the nose sticking out of the water, resembling a half filled bottle bobbing at the surface! Then after it woke up, it appeared to be yawning, opening its mouth wide several times! We just never know what we’ll see out there!!

sleepy harbor seal

yawning harbor seal!

This afternoon we had to do a bit of searching as the morning whales had moved but we soon spotted another ocean sunfish and got some great views of this creature. 

ocean sunfish

Then we got a report of one of our whales seen during the morning trip. It had moved a bit and when we finally found it, we saw that it was Highlighter! 

Highlighter

This whale did a quick tail breach and then continued on with its 5-6 minute dives.  Not far away, humpback whale Quote was spotted. We got a few nice sightings of her asymmetrical flukes before it was time to head for home, but in the meantime, we also spied a young gray seal in the area as well as a quick look at a minke whale.

I wonder what we’ll find tomorrow!

Thursday, August 20

Today we were "lucky" to have the added bonus of fog to deal with on both of our trips. Fog can be extremely tricky; you can be socked in fog one minute and be surrounded by miles of visibility the next. We have had some incredible trips in the fog so while it definitely makes finding whales a bit more challenging that does not deter us from giving it a try. Many thanks to all who joined us today as your help in searching in all directions around the boat for any signs of whale life was extremely helpful. Both of our trips today included a quick look a Minke whale, an Ocean sunfish at the surface and a Humpback whale. Both of our Minke whale sightings were brief as these whales were being a bit elusive today. Interestingly enough while we were watching our Minke whales we found an Ocean sunfish in the area (occurring during both of our trips). Weird timing but always a fun sighting seeing an Ocean sunfish.

The lighter glow in this image is our Ocean sunfish subsurface seen on our morning trip

This morning while we were waiting for our Minke whale to resurface we suddenly saw a spout just in front of us. We maneuvered away from our Minke whale and headed in the direction of the spout. It was a Humpback whale, Quill.

Quill the Humpback whale

At first this whale was being a bit uncooperative. This whale was spending longer amounts of time below the surface and only coming up for a few breaths. Eventually, our patience paid off for as the fog rolled back in we were able to continue spending time with this whale.

Quill's tail

This afternoon, after our brief look at a Minke whale on the move (and of course our Ocean sunfish), we went searching for some more life.

Ocean sunfish swimming in towards the boat

The fog was thick but we knew we were moving through areas where we have seen whales recently. Suddenly there was a spout just off our starboard side. A Humpback whale was close! This whale was up for a handful of breaths as we quickly realized it was Mogul.

Humpback whale in the fog

Mogul

Awesome! Oh wait... not so much. After A LOT of searching, including other whale watching boat moving through the area, we had a VERY tough time relocating this whale. Eventually it was time to head for home as we remained in the fog the whole ride home. Sometimes the whales can be tricky to come across, sometimes the weather can make things a bit tricky but the unknown can only be determined when you put the effort in. So as long as the ocean allows we are never afraid of a bit of a challenge.

Wednesday, August 19

There were plenty of surprises we had over the course of both of our trips today. This morning we were fortunate enough to have a grand slam of whale species, 4 different kinds in just one trip. We saw a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, 10 Minke whales, 2 Ocean sunfish, 2 Fin whales and looks at 2 of the 3 Humpback whales we saw.

A few of the half-dozen Atlantic white-sided dolphins seen just south of the Isles of Shoals

Subsurface Minke whale

Minke whale

Some of our whales were being a bit more elusive than others but such is the case when you go searching for wild animals. We have no way of knowing what we are going see, what behaviors any whale will do while spending time with it and how many whale will be spotted. Each experience out to the open ocean is as exciting for us as we hope it is for all of our passengers as we love what we do and enjoy sharing these experience with everyone. Our Humpback whales were Quill and Highlighter, familiar whales still spending time in the area.

Quill

Highlighter

We also checked out 2 Fin whales even though these whales were spending much more time below the waterline than some of the other whales we had already checked out.

First Fin whale of the morning

Our patience paid off waiting for these whales to resurface especially when we saw a very familiar whale that we haven't seen since July 21. Ladder is back! What a fin-tastic surprise!

Great to have you swimming around the area again Ladder!

This afternoon the wind and waves picked up a bit but, whales were still plentiful. We saw 5 Minke whales and 3 Humpback whales. Our first sighting of the afternoon was a very special sighting. It was a Minke whale mother and calf pair! In general we rarely see mother/calf Minke whales so it was a super fantastic find. On top of that, the calf was being quite active charging through the waves, breaching a couple of times and even rolled over at one point. This calf was being so squirmy it was tricky to get a photo of it but we did document mom which is now a confirmed female!

Dorsal fin of our Minke whale mom!

After leaving these two whales our next whale was another fun find. It was a Humpback whale but one we have yet to see in our area this season. This whale has such a unique tail pattern that even from a distance we knew who this whale was. It was Quote!

Distant look at Quote

As our travels continued we ended up coming across Highlighter and #0050 before the day was done. What a day full of life today!

Highlighter

#0050