July 13 Granite State

Jeffreys Ledge sure made our trips exciting today as life was out and about offshore. As was the case with both trips today we swung by Boon Island to check out the seal colony and got some fun looks at these marine mammals over the course of the day.



This morning we also got a chance to see 3 Minke whales, 2 Fin whales, and a Basking shark! Both of our Fin whales were darting back and forth which for an animal that can easily weigh 60+ tons it is quite amazing to see how these whales can literally just turn on a dime! Comet and #0282 gave us some great looks as they sporadically surfaced all around the boat this morning.

Comet

Fin whale #0282 (above and below)

Fin whales certainly have a whole lot of body!

Not only did we get a chance to check out the second largest animals in the world (a Fin whale!) we also got a chance to spend time with one of the second largest sharks in the world! A Basking shark with a ginormous dorsal fin was moving around the area.

You can barely make out the tip of this shark's snout as it breaks the surface on the right side of this photo

This shark was doing some feeding as a few times you could see this shark had its mouth wide open filtering the ocean water for plankton!

Fin whale #0282 swimming past a Basking shark this morning

The extremely large fin of this Basking shark above the surface as it swims with its mouth (the white patch on the right side of the picture) wide open

This afternoon we spotted 4 Minke whales and 3 Fin whales! Comet and #0282 were still zig-zagging around but a new whale had joined in the mix. 

Fin whale #0282

After spending time with some of the other whales in the area we ventured over to our newcomer to find out it was a whale we had last seen almost a month ago! Streak the Fin whale was back! We last saw Streak on June 15 and not at all in the same area of Jeffreys Ledge where we watched her today. Thanks for returning back to the area Streak (if you even left the ledge in the first place!) and allowing to get some great looks as this whale constantly was seen circling around the boat.

Hello again Streak! (above and below)

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