July 20 Atlantic Queen

Atlantic white-sided dolphin

Whales were a bit harder to find this afternoon, but we did have some great sightings!  Minke whales were scattered throughout the trip, and we had 9  minkes total, although they weren't spending much time at the surface.

Our friends on the Prince of Whales alerted us to some Atlantic white-sided dolphins in the area, and we had a great time watching about 30 of these dolphins travel all around our bow, stern and both sides of the boat. Things really kicked into gear when we left the area - as we picked up speed, the dolphins started leaping in our wake!

Atlantic white-sided dolphins

Today was a great example of how our local whale watch boats cooperate. After we did a circle offshore and didn't see anything, we spoke to our friends on the Granite State who said they had a humpback - it was taking long dives, but it was there!

We got closer and found Seal, a male humpback born in 1984.  Seal was moving very slowly at the surface, and several times instead of taking a deeper dive, he just sank.  So it was a great surprise when twice, he lifted his huge flukes out of the water in what looked like a combination tail breach and lob tail.  We got a great look at his enormous (probably about 14' from tip-to-tip) tail before he settled down again for more hanging out at the surface.

Seal the humpback whale

We spotted more minke whales and a harbor seal on the way in.  Overall, lots of variety out there and a great day to be on the water!

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