July 19 Granite State

This morning we were full of Minke whales as our travels brought us a total of 9 Minke whales over the course of the morning. Many of these whales were doing a good bit of circling around so much so a few decided it would be a good idea to swim right in towards the boat! 

First Minke whale of the day enjoyed surfacing right next to the pulpit!

These whales were being crazy! But no worries we would just shut off our engines and let these whales have the right of way (as always!) whichever direction they decided to swim towards next. 


Another incoming Minke whale!

Minke whale coming to the surface for a breath of air

By snapping photographs of these whales we were even able to determine, based on their dorsal fin shape, that we have seen a few of them already this season including some from a couple of weeks ago!

Check out the dorsal fins of all these Minke whale photographs and you can see they all have their own uniquely shaped fins and thus different individuals!

This afternoon we got reports of other whale activity in areas different from where we had travelled to during our morning trip. With the wind not extremely noticeable after leaving the harbor we decided to give it a go and do some searching. Our luck paid off as we were able to find two species of whales offshore. We were able to check out a Fin whale before heading over to an old friend. Our Fin whale, even though it swam on through the area, was a whale we were able to identify based on its dorsal fin shape. Fin whale #0813 was in the area! This is the first time we have seen this whale this season so we were thrilled to get a chance to see it swim on by.

Distant look at Fin whale #0813 swimming around

We then spent time with Pinball, who was once again back on the ledge. We saw her earlier this week but prior to that we haven't seen Pinball since June 29! 

Pinball

Spout from Pinball as she surfaces for another breath of air (after this exhalation!)

Jeffreys Ledge once again proved to share some of the wildlife that calls this place a summer feeding ground with all of us today for another great day out on the open ocean.

Hello again Pinball

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