June 23, Captain's Lady III

Great day to escape the heat! Both trips brought us great looks at two whales.

During our morning trip, we found Satula the humpback whale again. He was moving around a bit but surfaced close by a few times. Satula has been our "resident whale" since mid-May.

Satula- check out his "tubercles"

Satula diving

Satula- check out this close up of the barnacles on his fluke!

 We ventured on to find a very nice fin whale just a few miles from Satula. We haven't seen a fin whale on the Captain's Lady III since May 19, so this lady was a lovely sight! Fin whales are my favorite species of whale so I was beyond excited. Eventually, after some analyzing of our photos, we ID'ed this fin whale as #9709, a female first seen in 1997! We know she is female since was seen with a calf in 2007.

Fin whale spouting

Fin whale #9709's chevron

Fin whale #9709's dorsal fin

 At one point, as we waited for her to resurface, she surprised us  by popping up right next to us!! This is a behavior 9709 is known for!! Very glad to see this whale back in the area!

Our afternoon trip was also fantastic. We relocated Satula, the humpback again:

Satula

 But we were unable to find fin whale #9709. Instead, we saw Pinball, another humpback whale! Pinball was very mellow and easy to get close looks at since she repeated surfaced near us while we sat idle. Pinball is a 24 year old humpback who has had 7 calves that we know of.

Pinball's unique fluke

Pinball diving off our bow after checking out our boat!

Our interns hard at work recording each and every spout!

Such a fantastic day! We hope to see you out here with us soon!


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