June 13, Prince of Whales, Newburyport

Today we were in search of the elusive great whale...literally. We found three whales as well as a pod of white sided dolphins (technically toothed whales) but all were challenging to get good looks at. The first minke gave us the slip. The second minke was better and actually appeared as we were waiting for a big fin whale to surface. This minke, pictured below, was close to the boat and we all got a couple of great looks at it before it disappeared.
The fin whale was very busy, only surfacing for a couple of breaths before going down for 10+ minutes. I am guessing it was feeding as it was circling around but not leaving the area and only coming up for needed air before continuing to catch its lunch.

On our way in, we watched a small pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins race around the area. These dolphins were also feeding, constantly changing direction and always moving at a fast speed. The images below show just how fast these little guys were going- you can really only see the white water and barely any of the dolphin! Speedy dolphins!

The activity on the ledge is encouraging even if the whales were not as well behaved as we would like. Several species of pelagic (offshore) birds were seen including northern gannets, Wilson's storm petrels and a sooty shearwater. The presence of birds is always a good indicator of the food production (plankton and small fish) in the area. Hopefully once the whales fill their bellies, they will slow down a bit and allow us some better looks.


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