July 28 Atlantic Queen

Calm, cool, and grey day out at Jeffreys Ledge today. Certainly nice to leave the heat back on land, unfortunately the humidity followed us out there. The trip started slow, but eventually we found a minke whale. Not too far in the distance we also found a small pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! My first pod of the season. They really can be a fun species to see out at the Ledge, although this pod seemed a bit sleepy. Still got some good looks at this group before we decided to press on. Not long after we found ANOTHER pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! We typically see dolphins on 20% of our trips, and it's almost unheard of to see TWO different pods! Hanging around the dolphins was also a blue shark that we were able to get some quick looks at before it dove deeper.

We then decided to press on further out into the Gulf of Maine in search of some larger cetaceans. We searched for a little while and then came upon another sleepy whale. We found a fin whale that was logging. Logging is a behavior where whales sleep. Because they are conscious breathers they need to keep one half of their brain awake to remind them to breath. So in order to rest they can shut off half of their brain and bob at the surface. The behavior is called logging because they look a lot like a giant log floating on the surface. It was so calm today that we could see the whale just hanging out right below the surface. Really cool!

Congratulations to Peg Connel for adopting Comet today in our raffle. Thank you to everyone who joined us today; we hope to see you soon!

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