July 7, Captain's Lady III

We had an amazingly calm day on the ocean! Days like today are few and far between. Our morning trip brought us 6 minke whales!!  And each seemed to exhibit slightly different behaviors from one whale just coming up for one quick breath, to another whale that seemed to enjoy hanging around the boat!

Minke whale

Minke whale- check out the "mittens"!

As you can see, these whales were close enough for us to get these great pictures of their pointed noses piercing the surface just before each breath! Awesome!

The afternoon trip was a little different. On our way out, our friends on the Atlantic Queen called us over to visit with a fin whale!! Fin whales are my favorite so I was pretty excited. What made the sighting even better was this was Comet, a female fin whale first seen by Blue Ocean Society researchers in 1997!! Welcome back, Comet!  We saw her a few times last summer, but this was our first sighting of her this year. She was even doing her signature-behavior: lifting the caudal end of her body up high so we could almost see her tail!  Comet is extra-special since she is one of our four adoptable fin whales.

Comet the fin whale

Comet's unique scars

Over the past year, Comet has acquired a few new scars/scratches but otherwise seems in great shape. We hope to see her with a calf in the years to come!

After seeing Comet, we headed off in search of more life. We found some minke whales and got great looks at one of them as it cruised along side our boat.

Minke incoming!

Minke dorsal fin with unique notches

Certainly an excellent day on the ocean! Thanks to everyone who helped out our cause and be sure to visit our website to adopt Comet or one of her friends!

Oh, and forgot to add in an awesome photo of our amazing deckhand, Amy (also a former BOS intern) rescuing a deflated My Little Pony balloon from the ocean, where it could end up in a whale's stomach. Nice work Amy and Captain Chris!!

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