A Little Bit of Everything

What a weekend! With the sunshine finally back from behind the clouds life on land and out at sea seemed to be bountiful. Friday brought excitement when we were treated to 3 Fin whales swimming together. Being the second largest animal in the world (average lengths range between 60-70ft) not only was is great to see one of these animals but to have 3 right next to each other was amazing! This sight is a bit rare due to the fact that Fin whales require 1 million calories a day and thus are usually seen moving around alone searching for enough food to eat. Could these whales be working together to find food? How long have they been travelling with each other? With all that we know about Fin whales there is still so much we have yet to figure out. Thanks to photo-documentation and behavioral sequencing on large marine mammals, due to the Blue Ocean Society, we continue to collect valuable data of whales seen on Jeffrey's Ledge during a whale watch. This data helps us to continue learning about these incredible creatures. It is truly all of you passengers and great whale watch companies that provide the platform and the ability to go out in the first place to watch and learn about these marine inhabitants. So thank you! Of course the holiday weekend had just begun and apparently more was in store for everyone going whale watching.

On the 4th of July we found whales quite inshore from Jeffrey's Ledge and we quickly found out why. The area was full of food! The top portion of our fish finder (as you can see in the photo) was picking up a HUGE amount of fish in the area. The ocean floor was 184ft deep and from the surface down to about 120ft was a massive grouping of fish. That's where we found a Humpback whale named Solas.

The last time we saw this whale on the Granite State was July 10, 2008! Almost an entire year later this whale is back in our area. Incredible!! This whale was doing some amazing feeding behaviors known as bubble cloud feeding and kick feeding. Both involve the whale corralling fish into a tight group before the whale swims up under the fish with it's mouth wide open to capture the fish. Thanks to our bird watching friends we were also lucky enough to see 3 species of Jaegers: the Pomarine, Parasitic and Long-tailed! The day also provided sightings of Minke whales, Fin whales and tons and tons of pelagic birds. The birds were going after the fish the whales were unable to catch in their mouth and provided quite the show all day long! We had more bubble cloud feeding by a Humpback whale and a lunge feeding Fin whale both of which were surrounded by birds swarming the area in the afternoon. Such an awesome sight.


Jeffrey's Ledge continued to team with life on Sunday. We saw 3 more Fin whales grouped together, one of which we believe was one of the 3 seen on Friday in the group. Of course that will have to be confirmed by Dianna Schulte, the queen of Fin whale Identification, as she continues one of her many Blue Ocean Society duties matching these whales. More Minke whales were scattered throughout the Ledge and another first of the season was found.


We came across a group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! This pod of dolphin spent some time swimming at our bow as well as in our boat wake as the crew and passengers were elated to watch these whales all around the boat. It was the first sighting of these dolphins for us even though they had been reported by some of the offshore fishing boats a couple times this season. Atlantic white-sided dolphins are fast swimming animals and can easily move away from an area in a short period of time. So it was a real treat to intersect with their travel pattern before they continued on. Our Blue Ocean Society intern on board, Keeley, got to experience her first time of seeing this particular type of dolphin making the trip even more exciting.


From what I have heard here on land today there is still a lot of life out on the Ledge and can't wait to get back on the boat this week. Come on out whale watching and find out for yourself what is out there!