June 17 Prince of Whales

The rain showers (mostly) held off today as we cruised out to Jeffreys Ledge with a group of students from New Boston Central School. As we approached the Ledge, we saw a blow that turned out to be a fin whale! Fin whales are my favorite species though this one in particular was a bit difficult to get great looks at as it seemed to be feeding and moving all around. We continued on to find a fun pod of Atlantic white side dolphins! These guys were pretty busy feeding but we were all lucky to get some fabulous looks as they swerved under the bow and jumped in our wake!

As we got closer to the Ledge, a minke whale popped up off our bow, giving everyone up there a wonderful close look! Minkes are "small" baleen whales (20-30 feet!) and often under-appreciated. This whale gave us the closest, yet brief, look of the day!

Soon we spotted a couple more blows- humpback whales! The first proved to be very elusive- likely chasing down schools of fish near the bottom, but even from a distance, I would know this whale anywhere....Satula!!! This whale was first seen in 1988 and we don't know how old he is. I have been watching him since the beginning of my whale watching career (way back in 1995) when he used to hang out with Marble, who hasn't been seen in years :( When I started to get to know Satula way back then, he had a big dorsal fin. A few years ago he returned without a dorsal fin. No one knows what happened to him, but a few humpback whales are known to have lost their fins over the winter months. Nonetheless, Satula appears to be doing just fine without it! And because we see Satula nearly every year, we have made him one of our Adoptable Whales!

Satula diving near a fishing boat. Note the divot where his fin used to be!

As we were trying to keep up with Satula, we found another humpback whale. I soon realized we were looking at another Adoptable Whale, Pinball!! This lovely lady was born in 1989 making her 22 years old this year and another favorite of ours! I have to say it is very rare to see 2 of our 4 Adoptable Humpback Whales during the same trip!

Pinball seemed to be doing some feeding as well but was sticking around in the same place so we all got some great looks at her cool flukes.

Pinball going down for a deep dive

Also near Pinball were two minke whales scooting by closely! It really was a medley of marine life today! Thanks to the very well behaved students (and chaperons- you were well behaved too!) from New Boston today! And thanks to all of you who adopted whales today!!! We will keep you posted on any and all future sightings of your whales this year!

Do you still want to adopt a whale? You can do so online at

http://www.blueoceansociety.org/Store/store.html

Thanks!

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