Blue Ocean Society's Whale Sightings

October 9- Prince of Whales

2011-10-10T15:17:00.009-04:00

What a fantastic final weeknd of our whale watching season! On Friday, we were treated to a few looks at critically endangered right whales, and a few fin whales. Saturday brought us an enormous number of Atlantic white sided dolphins and more fin whales, and Sunday, to top it off, we found several fin whales including #9618, dozens of harbor porpoises, leaping bluefin tuna everywhere, and a mother humpback whale with her calf!

Fin whale #9618, first documented in 1984 on Stellwagen Bank and later documented on Jeffreys Ledge in 1996, has been seen several times earlier this summer- in July and August.

Fin whale #9618

A second very large fin whale was seen nearby. This one I thought could be #9709 but upon closer inspection, it is not...likely this whale is a new animal to our catalog!

New fin whale surfacing

Check out the beautiful chevron on this whale- very unique and distinctive!

Fin whale chevron marking

Seemingly everywhere throughout the trip today were harbor porpoises and bluefin tuna jumping around. We saw at least 4 different groups of porpoises, but no sightings of the white one we had seen last week.

Bluefin tuna

As we spotted a couple more blows from fin whales, our friends on the Granite State radioed to inform us of a pair of whales heading our way. After a bit of searching, our special guests Cynthia and John spotted the blows and back of a whale about a mile away. This was a mother/calf pair of humpback whales and even more exciting for us since we hadn't seen any humpbacks since late August!

The calf appeared to be nursing, something it won't be doing much longer as it is nearing weaning time (the calf was likely born in the Caribbean in Dec-January of this past winter). Both the mom, who we later identified as Solo, and her calf were lifting their flukes as they went down on a deep dive together. Absolutely beautiful!

Humpback whales, Solo and her calf

Thanks to everyone on board today for making this such a special trip for us all, and thanks to all of the Prince of Whales passengers this season for your continued support! We look forward to seeing you back on the water next spring!

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October 6 Granite State

2011-10-06T19:55:00.011-04:00

October already??? Wow. That can only mean one thing... we are just about done with our 2011 whale watching season. However, while we are beginning to wrap up the year, the whales have continued to keep us on our toes. The weather has been less than ideal recently which has been keeping us planted firmly on solid land but our past couple trips to Jeffreys Ledge has continued to showcase the variety Jeffreys always seems to offer. We've had some unexpected sightings in more ways than one!

On September 27 we had quite the cetacean sightings. At least 5 Fin whales were spotted along with a Humpback whale that made it's first appearance on Jeffreys Ledge this season. Viper, a whale that has spent a lot of time a bit further north with our whale watching friends at Bar Harbor Whale Watch over the course of this year's feeding season, was spotted. Viper was doing a bit of traveling but still allowed us a chance to spend some time with this particular whale.

Viper

Viper of course was not the only surprise. Little did we know what else was lurking around the water and this time it was not even a baleen whale, it was a toothed-whale. To be more specific, about 20-25 of these toothed-whales. We happened to come across a pod of Common dolphins!!!

Common Dolphins

This sighting marks only the 2nd time EVER the Granite State has seen these animals. Half of our crew had never even seen these cetaceans before and we've spent A LOT of time on the water. What an incredible surprise!!! These animals look a bit different than our usual suspects of dolphins (namely Atlantic white-sided dolphins) and boy were these whales quick.

Common dolphins above vs. Atlantic white-sided dolphins below (photo taken earlier this season)

If you thought white-sided dolphins were tricky to get photographs of, these whales were even more unexpectedly zip-zooming in every which direction around the boat.

Common Dolphins jumping clear out of the water!

Nature, mysterious and wondrous, always has a way of unexpectedly surprising us.

Unique coloration pattern of a Common Dolphin above vs. an Atlantic white-sided dolphin below (photo taken earlier this season)

Today continued with more surprises in and around Jeffreys Ledge as we finally got out on the water for the first time for the month of October. We ended up carefully maneuvering through an area where lots of endangered Right whales were around. Scattered out in the distance in so many different directions were those distinct v-shaped blows and smooth, dark tails, known as a Right whale. A few areas where these whales were occupying included lots of white water and knew a surface active group (SAG) was in effect. Of course Right whales weren't the only animals utilizing Jeffreys Ledge today. A pair of Fin whales were found swimming along together.

The dorsal fins of our Fin whales. Note the animal below has ever so slightly a more "bent" or angled dorsal fin compared to the more "triangular" or upright fin above.

These massively large animals were so graceful as they synchronized their surfacings together; a feat that is quite impressive when you think just one of these animals can reach lengths over 60ft and weigh 60+ tons!

Our Fin whales at the surface together

We are down to our last weekend of the 2011 Season. The weather finally seems like it wants to cooperate for us so feel free to get your last "whale fix" and go whale watching in the next few days this holiday weekend!

Fin whale getting a good breath of air at the surface

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September 25- Prince of Whales

2011-09-25T19:37:00.009-04:00

After spending a week at the dock, we had no idea what to expect for whales today. The off-shore boats were reporting fog, which is never any good when we make our living by looking for whales!

Our first sighting was by far my favorite- Casper the white harbor porpoise was back! We saw this pod and individual nearly 2 weeks ago, and honestly, I was concerned for its safety. Animals without natural camouflage typically don't do well in the wild (image a white deer trying to hide in the woods). But this little guy is appearing healthy and happy. All the conditions were working in our favor and I was able to get some more detailed photos of the extent of this unique porpoise's coloration- definitely not albino, but still very white!

White porpoise- "Casper"

All in all we saw about 40 porpoises today in 6 different pods!

We also had a near-record day for minke whale sightings- 10! We spent some time with a few of them and got some great ID shots so hopefully we can track these individuals over time and learn more about them!

Minke whale

While watching one of the minkes, we spotted a fin flopping around not far away- an Ocean Sunfish! This large fish was great and allowed us to "sneak up on it" in our 95-foot boat!

Ocean Sunfish

More minke whales seemed to be spread out all over the inner ledges and the calm seas helped us to get great looks as well as hear their blows.
Certainly a beautiful day on the water and we managed to avoid most of the fog!
Thanks for joining us!

PS- almost forgot to mention the cool diving gannet and jumping bluefin tuna show! Certainly a great display of nature and the food chain!

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September 12- Prince of Whales

2011-09-12T18:33:00.014-04:00

Crazy good day on the POW pelagic bird/whale watch! We started our marine mammal viewing in the river with a couple of harbor seals bouncing around.

Just a few miles offshore, we saw a lot of splashing that we first thought might be from dolphins but instead we were pleased to find a large pod of harbor porpoises! Typically the harbor porpoises are seen in small groups of 3-5 individuals and are a bit shy...this pod had at least 20 AND a white individual! I want to say it is an albino porpoise, but I'm really not sure if it technically albino- it had a little black on its fin and some gray on its back but not sure if that was scar tissue or actual pigment...anyway, very cool and VERY rare sighting!

The "white whale"! (harbor porpoise)

Soon after the porpoises, we found a nice minke whale!

A second minke was seen but was not all that cooperative for our purposes.

The birding was pretty good throughout the trip. Here, a parasitic jaeger is looking for another bird to stalk and force it to relinquish its lunch.
We followed some draggers who were discarding their by-catch. The gulls, petrels, shearwaters, jaegers and even a fulmar were having a feast!
A blow from a large whale was finally spotted. At first, this huge fin whale was not being all that good, but on our second attempt with her, we managed some fantastic looks! This is fin whale #9904, a female first observed in 1999.As we watched the birds behind the dragger, we passed by an ocean sunfish! After attempting to relocate the rare fulmar, we circled back and relocated the sunfish, giving us all some very unique views.
On our way in, after chasing some phalaropes, we found a nice pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! The dolphins were just milling about, and seemed to enjoy having a boat to play with! Lots of small calves were seen, as well as several very large males!

Absolutely beautiful day on the water today! Thanks to all of you who joined us for the birds and whales!

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September 11 Granite State

2011-09-11T21:07:00.006-04:00

On a day that has changed the lives of all of us it was that much more meaningful to have the chance to watch some of nature's finest throughout our trips today. We had quite the sightings, both during our morning and afternoon trips, truly showcasing just how spectacular wildlife can be. This morning we were fortunate to find Right whales engaged in a social activity only this species seems to exhibit especially in our part of the Atlantic Ocean. Known as a Surface Active Group, these whales are known to frolic with each other rolling all around, creating quite the disturbance of water even from a distance, as the whales breathe, roll over, lift their tails, and do it all over again in a kind of "dance."

We also were lucky to find a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins today. There were about 20 of these whales making their way through the water together. With a bit of wave action we were dealing with on the boat, these animals definitely didn't mind as they were changing course constantly swimming from one wave to the next and back again. Definitely a nice find and some nice looks at these toothed-whales.
This afternoon we had another type of "dance" from a Humpback whale that was putting on quite the show. This whale was originally sighted by a fishing boat on their way home from the day and was spotted by the major splashing it was creating on the surface of the water. We weren't far from the report so we made our way over and even from a distance it was incredible to watch this animal raise its tail high above the surface of the water and smack in down over, and over, and over again. This animal continued on with this behavior until just before we got to the area, but again even having witnessed this activity in general was wonderful. Once we were close the whale changed up its behaviors and started to flipper slap! Instead if bringing the back half of its body above the water this whale was rolling over on its side and belly lifting its extremely large flippers above the surface. Wow.

Patches bright white flippers that probably reach lengths of 15ft and weigh almost 1-ton each!

After a little bit of time watching this animal roll around and go on a few deeper dive we were able to identify this whale as Patches, a whale first sighted in 1980, and one that is at least 31 years old! We had found an adult whale. Patches was seen last year on Jeffreys Ledge but this is its first appearance to our area this season so we are thrilled to have this animal around.

The dorsal fin (above) and tail (below) of Patches

After the initial activity this whale was showcasing for all our passengers on board today little did we know we were in for one more treat. Out of nowhere this whale jumped completely out of the water! It only breached once but boy was it intense to see a large adult Humpback whale sky-rocket its body into the air and crash back on the water. What a sight.

Not a bad way to spend the day today. Thanks to all of our passengers who joined us. It was a very special day in more ways than one.
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September 10 Granite State

2011-09-11T19:49:00.005-04:00

Large, fast, sleek, and agile pretty much sums up our trips today. During both of our trips we got some great looks at Fin whales swimming through the water. These animals being some of the second largest animals on the entire planet were just coasting around the ocean with such ease.

Even when we dealt with a little unexpected "adventuresome" sea conditions this morning, the whales still had no problem maneuvering around the area unfazed. Just incredible. On both the morning and afternoon trips we spent time with the same animal that was still circling around the area. In the afternoon we even got a chance to see a "present" left on the surface of the ocean, a red cloud in fact, of whale defecation! This animal had recently been feeding on krill. We also had another Fin whale move into the same area in the afternoon and managed to get some wonderful looks at both of the whales before ending our day.

Fin whale #9709 surprised us it surfaced amongst the other Fin whale in the area allowing for some great close looks off our port side!

Of course we also had a few surprises on both of our trips as well. This morning we were lucky enough to see out of the blue a Basking shark not too far away from the boat. This large fish (the 2nd largest shark on the planet!) was just swimming through the area. As this shark remained just underneath the water we were able to slowly stay alongside it and get some great looks.

The dorsal fin (left) and the tail (right) breaking the surface of the water as this shark swam alongside us!

Such a large creature and one that doesn't even have any teeth in its mouth! It is a filter feeder just like many of the whales we see! Granted sharks filter feed slightly differently than baleen whales but Basking sharks feed on plankton just like some whales! What an unexpected find and some incredible looks at such a large fish!

A closeup look at the dorsal fin of our Basking Shark

Our afternoon special treat was a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. Our friends on the Atlantic Queen had spotted these animals and passed along the information so we could get a bit of time watching these quick "little" whales zig and zag through the area. The group consisted of about 25 whales and were meandering around giving us some wonderful sights around the entire boat!
Another day of whales of different shapes and sizes with a few of unexpected surprises mixed in. Basically something we hope for on a daily basis. Who knows what we may find while searching the ocean but we have as much fun as hopefully all of you do seeing just what lurks underneath the water in the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean.

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September 9 Granite State

2011-09-09T19:22:00.005-04:00

It's been a long week as the weather has been keeping us on land recently. Finally we were able to make it back to Jeffreys Ledge and search for some whales. Well we searched, and searched some more, and when we were still coming up short we searched some more. We had good visibility so we were beginning to get a bit concerned. Where had all the whales gone? Alas however, just as we started to head in the direction of home our crew spotted a spout. One spout turned into two. We ended up coming across a pair of Sei whales! Not only were the two whales sticking side by side the entire time we spent watching them, these fastest whales in the water were just moseying through the area. Both animals were surfacing effortlessly and slowly, not using their amazing burst of speeds (over 30mph!!!) through the area.

Our Sei whales just gliding through the water with such ease

We were able to get some great looks at this pair before heading back to Rye Harbor. And of course we can't forget to mention the few Minke whales we spotted during our ride back home as well.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. It has not been unusual recently to have one day be a bit more challenging to come across whales and the next suddenly have animals in areas where we've seen nothing just a day earlier! Such is the case when searching for all types of wildlife; sometimes it take a bit more effort than other days. However, with a little bit of patience, a little bit of luck, and some nice conditions forecasted for the next few days anything is possible. The only thing you can predict with wildlife is that they are completely unpredictable. And that is what continues to bring us all back for more. Tomorrow is a new day and the only way to find out what is around is to once again try our luck. Hope you join us and do the same!
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September 4 Granite State

2011-09-05T12:08:00.003-04:00

Today we were lucky enough to spend time with Fin whale #9709 during both of our trips. Not only was this whale further inshore than we typically see such enormous whales, but we were able to spend some quality time with her as well as she maneuvered her way around the ocean. As we try to individually identify just about everything that we see during our trips, we have been keeping tabs on this whale since it was first sighted in 1997 on Jeffreys Ledge! While we may not know how old this animal is, we do know it is at least 14 years old.

Zooming in on this whale's dorsal fin we can match up the unique squiggles on the back part of the fin corresponding to Fin whale #9709 in our on board catalog!

Even more exciting to know is that this whale is an adult female. During the 2007 whale watching season, this animal was sighted with a calf; she's a girl! Since she was swimming alone on her own this year we know she most likely did not give birth to another calf, as the calf would still be staying close to mom these days. All alone this whale is still impressive in size especially being one of the second largest animals in the world!
Our travels today also allowed us to spend some time with a few Minke whales scattered out over the ocean and even a glimpse at one of the rarest whales we ever have the opportunity to see here in the North Atlantic Ocean; highly endangered Right whales.

Wishing everyone a Happy Labor Day as we too will be enjoying a bit of time off as the weather is not quite conducive for whale watching adventures over the next couple of days. Until the next time...

#9709 surfacing just alongside the boat!

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September 4- Prince of Whales

2011-09-04T20:31:00.005-04:00

After a couple days of watching minke whales and a very long-diving fin whale, we were excited to find some very cooperative whales today! The rare sei whales were popping up on each side of the boat, giving us nice views of their spouts and pointed fins!

We also spotted a couple of right whales in the area- known by their distinctive v-shaped spouts and lack of dorsal fin!

On our return trip, we got sidetracked by a tall spout, likely a fin whale, but this whale was not at all cooperative and as we waited for it, a minke whale appeared! But then that whale was gone as well. Seems like these whales had another agenda today which did not include being looked at by us!

Happy Labor Day to everyone and a special congratulations to Marc, the winner of our whale adoption raffle today!

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September 3 Granite State

2011-09-03T19:36:00.006-04:00

Jeffreys Ledge sure had its own surprises in store for us today. Unfortunately they weren't quite the surprises we were hoping for. The whales that we've been seeing the past few days almost completely disappeared, or at least scattered immensely. With multiple boats from the New England area searching the whales were nowhere near what has been around. Of course that is also what is very much capable of happening when it comes to dealing with wild animals. They can, and do, move and all we can do is hope we find out where they moved too. As we are always in contact with fishing vessels and other whale watching boats there are eyes all over Jeffreys Ledge and sometimes finding these creatures can be a tad bit challenging.

One of the nice surprises of the day was when we came across a Fin whale quite a bit inshore of Jeffreys Ledge this morning. It is not uncommon to find whales closer to home, but typically we have to go 20 miles before coming across these large mammals. While this whale was inshore, it was definitely on the move and steadily traveling around. We a couple really nice looks especially when the whale crossed just in front of the bow, cruising through the water and waves with such ease. Amazing to see an animal weighing 60+tons just push the ocean aside as it comes to the surface for a breath of air.

Our travels also provided 5 Minke whales and even another baleen whale, a Sei whale, to our morning trip. On our ride home we got reports of whale activity a bit closer to home and in a different direction than where we had traveled this morning so we figured we would give it a go for our afternoon trip.

As we made our way into areas of whale reports this afternoon we did find a Minke whale before making our way over to where our friends aboard the Prince of Whales were. Both of us were awaiting a whale the Atlantic Queen had come across and passed along the news to all of us! There was a Fin whale in the area. This whale was being a bit challenging taking 14-minute, 8-minute, and over 25-minute(!!!) dive intervals. Not only was this whale spending lots of time under the water, it also was sporadically surfacing in all which directions.

Our Fin whale even swimming away from us is still impressive in size!

We did manage a few nice looks before another Minke whale passed through the area. This whale was spending only a few minutes under the water and just gliding through the water so off we went to spend time with this baleen whale!

Minke whale surfacing

As we enjoyed our time with this animal it was also a little tense as both this Minke whale and the Fin whale were in an area where there was a lot of fishing gear in the water. All the buoys on the ocean's surface have lines attached to them, some going all the way down to the bottom of the ocean (around 250ft!) of line the whales must avoid! Whales can easily get tangled in lines as the lines are pretty much invisible to a whale going after all of its food. Thankfully the whole time we watched these animals they avoided these potential dangerous threats; something these whales must do on a daily basis.

Our Minke whale swimming just in front of fishing gear! Luckily this whale did a great job avoiding all the gear in the water during the time we spent in this area.

Thanks to all of our passengers today who joined us for another adventure. Patience was key and we thank you for helping to keep an eye on all of our sightings. Who knows what another day will do to these animals. We will find out once again tomorrow!

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Atlantic Queen September 2, 2011

2011-09-02T19:45:00.002-04:00

Sometimes the weather and your passengers really can make your day! We took our passenger about 20 miles from Rye Harbor today to find more fun, curious Minke whales. I think Minke's get way to over looked in my opinion, they can be so much fun to spend time with. Once again today they came up next to us several times after going right under the boat. Some passengers got some very close looks as one came up right under the pulpit, rolling over to show us it's stark white belly! Thank you to all who joined us today your enthusiasm and questions made for a perfect day. Congratulations to Rhonda who won our raffle today, enjoy your humpback whale!

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September 2 Granite State

2011-09-02T19:21:00.008-04:00

The weather was fantastic for sighting cetacean life today! A crisp clear horizon, calms seas, and a bit of sunshine to keep you warm (it can get quite chilly out on the ocean at any time of the year!) provided perfect conditions for sighting animals from miles away today.

Our first whales of the day was a small group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. My oh my did this group of whales want nothing to do with us! Each and every surfacing was in a different direction, coming to the surface for just a few breaths before zipping to some other section of the ocean before turning right back around once again. Up down and all around we, and them, were going in circles trying to catch a quick glimpse of these squirm-ish animals this morning. Alas, we decided to cut our losses and continue further offshore to areas of Jeffreys Ledge we've had some success with over the past few days. Well as we continued on we saw more splashing. It was another pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. This particular group was made up of a few more animals, around 30, and were much more conducive to allowing our passengers to get some great looks at these whales.

As we made our way offshore in search of other whale activity we ended up coming into an area where we had two pairs of Sei whales. Even faster than the dolphins we saw earlier (Sei whales being the fastest whales on the entire planet!) these larger whales were thankfully not going anywhere in particular. Actually, they did a great job themselves surfacing on either side of the boat, and even out behind us, giving everyone on board a chance to see such sleek moving animals.

Sei whales at the surface

At one point the pair closer to us surfaced off our starboard side and then took an extremely sharp turn right in towards us!

A Sei whale maneuvering in our direction! Have no fear, the engines were shut off as these whales (and all whales for that matter always) have the right of way

Suddenly we had 2 Sei whales swim directly under the pulpit!!!!! With the two whales still just below the water, and barely any wind on the surface of the ocean, you could look down and see the entire length, including the tails, of these whales as they once again crossed back over to the other side of the boat! Simply amazing.

With some awesome looks at these fast moving creatures we decided to make our way further east to check out some other spouts we were seeing. Well the more we scanned the horizon the more spouts we kept seeing. Whales, whales, and more whales. Sei whales kept surfacing every which direction. Pairs, trios, and single Sei whales were moving through the water with such ease and synchrony it was incredible.

One of our many Sei whale pairs seen today

At the end of the day we sighted 18 different Sei whales! And no doubt there were more that we couldn't even make our way too. And why do you ask? Because scattered amongst the Sei whale frenzy, we were seeing signs of highly endangered Right whales! These whales, even from a distance are very easy to distinguish from a Sei whale by multiple factors. One: Right whales have no dorsal fin. Their entire back is a smooth, large, surface. Sei whales on the other hand typically have extremely tall and broad dorsal fins located on their backs. Two: Right whale spouts (if given the right perspective) are very often a v-shaped formation whereas a Sei whale's spout, or exhalation, is much more vertical and column-like. And three: Right whales will typically raise their tails above the surface of the water when they go on a deeper dive whereas Sei whales just arch their back steeply not raising their tails for us to see. Who knew even from out in the distance people can determine what species it is just by keying in on some distinguishing characteristics? Pretty cool, huh? Come find out other ways to tell whales apart this holiday weekend and join us aboard!

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Thursday September 1, 2011 Atlantic Queen

2011-09-02T10:16:00.002-04:00

Another day spent with minke whales in The Gulf of Maine. Lately these smaller baleen whales have been around very close to shore and being very cooperative, they don't always do this. As I spoke to our passengers most asked where are the humpbacks, I want to see humpbacks, it makes me kind of sad to think most folks only think of one type of whale. I really like Minke whales and I think they need the attention and respect the other big whales get. Folks today got some wonderful looks as they stayed right next to us just gracefully swimming along. I hope everyone learned more about the Minke's today especially since other countries are still hunting these little giants.

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September 1- Prince of Whales

2011-09-01T20:13:00.007-04:00

Minkes and Molas today! Still lots of minke whales inshore including the injured one we saw yesterday.

Minke whales!

We also found 3 ocean sunfish (Mola mola) including a pair that were swimming in tandem!

Ocean sunfish

The seabirds were also seemingly everywhere including Corys shearwaters and northern gannets!

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August 31- Prince of Whales

2011-08-31T21:15:00.003-04:00

Finally back on the water after taking a bit of a break for Irene (tropical storm).

On our way out we found lots of minke whales in close to shore- at least 10 were all around us at various times in about a 2 square-mile area! Awesome! You could look nearly anywhere around the boat and see a minke popping up! Sadly, one of these whales was recently injured and had a very new and fresh wound on its back and has lost its dorsal fin in the process! Luckily, the whale appeared to be doing well and was acting just like the other 9 in the area.

Minke whale

Then we traveled and traveled, passing many cool sea birds in the process. Three species of shearwaters, Wilson's storm petrels, juvenile laughing gulls, northern gannets and the variety of gulls were seemingly endless. We were searching for a group of sei whales that our friends on the Granite State informed us of. Eventually we found them- a nice group of 4 sei whales, who were sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs and once all together!

Three sei whales

Sei whales and a rainbow blow!

Beautiful day overall with very calm seas!

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August 31, Granite State

2011-08-31T19:01:00.004-04:00

Another beautiful day on the water...We started with a sighting of 3 harbor porpoise before the Isles of Shoals and since they can be somewhat elusive around boats, we decided to continue past the islands and see what Jeffrey's Ledge had in store. In total we had 5 Minkes, 11 Sei whales, a blue shark, an ocean sunfish, about 50 Atlantic white sided dolphins and 1 highly endangered Northern Right Whale! The whales were out in full force, and with glassy calm seas once again today, we could see whales along the surface very easily.

It seemed to be that the more area we explored, the more whales we would find. Here are some of my favorite photos from the day...

Our first Minke whale of the day

One of our many Sei whales

A different Sei whale in the area...

This dolphin decided to swim right next to the Granite State

As August comes to a close, we welcome September with all the whale sightings it has to offer! Here's to our fall whale watch season!

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Wednesday August 31, 2011

2011-08-31T18:53:00.003-04:00

Finally we were back on the water today after the effects of "Irene" Today was a calm, beautiful day in The Gulf of Maine. We got a call from our friends on The Prince of Whales about minke whales and perhaps a "big" whale. They did not disappoint with there call.
It was difficult to let the passengers know where to look due to so many surfaces from the 5 plus Minke whales we spent time with. Our passengers at the front of the boat got an unbelievable look at the 2ND largest whale in the world, the fin whale as it rose to breathe right under the pulpit! Labor day may be coming but the whales will still be around.

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August 30th, Granite State

2011-08-30T19:33:00.005-04:00

Today was our first day back out on the water, after Hurricane Irene made her way through the area. We didn't know what to expect for weather and whale activity and we were eager to find out. As we left Rye harbor, light winds and blue skies made for ideal conditions and we decided to head to an Eastern area of Jeffrey's Ledge where we have been having great luck with whale activity over the past month. After a big storm comes through, we never really know how the whales are going to be affected. After all they are constantly moving around in search of food regardless and if the food source gets distributed to different areas, that is where they will end up. In total we had 2 minke whales, 3 blue sharks, and about 60 Atlantic white sided dolphins! With glassy sea conditions, it was ideal for viewing dolphins and we were simply happy to be back out on Jeffrey's Ledge!

The weather is looking great for the next several days and we are looking forward to what tomorrow may have in store!

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August 26 Granite State

2011-08-27T11:30:00.009-04:00

So Irene may be continuing to make her way up the entire east coast but today on Jeffreys Ledge the whales continued to thrive with quite the plethora of species out there!

This morning we were excited to come across a great group of Atlantic white-sided dolphins to start the trip on. This pod ~65 was just moseying around the area providing a great opportunity to stay with, and enjoy watching, these whales.
There were even a few younger critters in this group, staying side by side the larger adults, and effortlessly staying right in tune with the larger animal's movements.
After spending some time with these whales we picked up some speed and headed closer to Jeffreys Ledge. What was our next type of marine life? More dolphins! We had found another pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. Not only was this a different group, but it was a larger and faster swimming pod! These animals were on the move perhaps chasing down some food further under the water as they were creating quite the ruckus for us above ocean level. These dolphins were constant splashing and quickly changing directions all the while having some birds swarming overhead, probably hoping to score some scraps of leftovers!

Atlantic white-sided dolphins on the move

We also knew while watching this group of dolphins it was a different pod than the group we had seen earlier. For one we had travelled a good distance from the previous sighting and while dolphins swim quickly, we would have seen them as they would have had to pass by us on their way to this offshore area. And two, we've been taking identifying photographs of each these animal's dorsal fins, helping us to distinguish individual animals within a particular group. Thanks to our Dolphin ID creator/master, Will, we knew this was a different group. What a nice surprise to see two different groups doing two different behaviors this morning.
While in the area of the dolphins we saw spouts from other whales near by. It was time to go investigate the area. We ended up finding 2 Fin whales moving through the water together.

A familiar Fin whale, #0354, who has returned to Jeffreys Ledge once again!

At first this pair of Fin whales appeared to be doing a bit of travelling as we had to play catch up the first couple times they surfaced together. The 3rd time they returned up from a deeper dive they both started to circle around the area. One whale left a trail of red clouds in the water, digested krill, before circling around once again and heading straight in towards the boat!

Whoa, hello big Fin whale!

Once these two animals popped up again we decided to search a few other areas nearby to see if any other animals were going to make themselves known. What we came into next were more Fin whales. We had made our way into an area where there were at least 5 around as we spotted them all spread out including a pair together, and three singles, scattered in different directions around the boat.

A pair of Fin whales at the surface

Well in a matter of minutes our whales started to form one larger group. First, 3 surfaced and began swimming together. After going on a deeper dive the next time they surfaced there were now 4 Fin whales on the move together. Our last viewing was of all 5 as two surfaced just off our starboard side and suddenly 3 more rose up from the depths of the ocean off our port side. Wow! Check out some of the uniquely shaped dorsal fins and scars found on a few of the Fin whales we watched:

We have only be able to positively identify one of the many Fin whales in this group. Above: Fin whale #0828

So many whales and yet we still had a bit more time out on the water. Our next stop was with yet another species, 2 Sei whales, that were circling around the water together.

Sei whale dorsal fins. Many times these fins are much taller and broader than the dorsal fins found on Fin whales

As we spent time watching these (many times except for recently!), rare sightings, another single Fin whale came through the area. This whale was on the move so we watched the Fin whale pass by while we spent our last bit of time with our other baleen whales, the Sei whales.

On our way home, as we always do, we keep an eye out just in case we happen to come into an area where more whales may be. What a surprise we found as we were heading back to Rye Harbor... PILOT WHALES!!!

Pilot whales are larger than the Atlantic white-sided dolphins we sometimes see and also are a uniform dark grey in color with broad dorsal fins

This group of about a dozen we found are also toothed-whales, and like the Atlantic white-sided dolphins that we come across, these pilot whales also swim in groups or pods. This was our first sightings of this species this year and so of course we veered slightly off course in order to spend just a few minutes with this group before heading back home. Thanks to our hard working crew who spotted these animals adding them to the list of an already stellar trip of whale sightings!

One pilot whale diving underneath the water while a few more surface near by

With such gorgeous conditions this afternoon we knew it would be good conditions for sighting whales, hopefully many of the ones we had seen in the morning, as we made our way back out to some of the same places we had been in the morning. Once again the whales continue to keep us enticed as we ended up seeing some different, and yet still, special sightings. Our first whale was a Fin whale that was taking looooooooooong dives so we decided to give ourselves a bit more time further offshore and moved on.

Our next sighting was much more cooperative. It was a pair of Sei whales, the exact same pair we had seen in the morning, and almost in the exact same spot! Hours had past and yet these two animals were still going strong circling around this particular spot of the ocean continuing to be associated with each other! Spending only minutes under the water, and not using their quick speed to zoom out of the area, (Sei whales are THE fastest swimming whales in the world!) we got some wonderful looks at these sleek creatures. While spending time with these whales we continued to see more spouts out in the distance. With such quality time spent around our Sei whales we decided to check out some of the other wildlife in the area. We ended up finding 2 Fin whales. These whales were spending a bit of time under the water, and doing a bit of travelling, so we continued to attempt to stay with one of these animals in the area. While awaiting for one to resurface, all of a sudden we saw a spout in the distance. Even from just the spout of this animal we knew exactly what it was; a highly endangered North Atlantic Right whale! The spout from these animals actually appears to be a v-shaped exhalation as their blowholes on the top of their heads are so steeply angled in comparison to the nostrils of most of the whales we see, we knew what was around. But there wasn't just one. Further out in the distance, another v-shaped spout occurred! We had just gone from watching two of the largest animals in the world (2 Fin whales) to being in an area where 2 of the rarest whales in our ocean currently resided (2 Right whales). Incredible. Even from out in the distance you could see these whales raise their large tails as they went down for a deeper dive. Beautiful and extremely rare creatures. What a great way to end our day.

Once again it ended up we were not quite done whale watching for the day. On our ride home we ended up intersecting a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

A few of these whales were jumping out of the water!

This group of approximately 75 whales were spread out over a vast area of the ocean. You could look down into the water and watch one of these dolphins have no problem keeping up with our moving vessel or look out towards the horizon and see splashing from these whales as they surfaced for a few breaths of air in every direction. Another awesome way to end another unique and special trip.

Even from out in the distance you can see how these dolphins acquired their name: Atlantic white-sided.

Irene will be keeping us off the ocean for a few days as she passes overhead. Who knows what all that churning of the ocean will do to the food around Jeffreys Ledge but we are extremely eager to find out later this week so stay tuned!!!

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August 26- Prince of Whales

2011-08-26T20:54:00.011-04:00

Today was our last whale watch for a few days as hurricane/tropical storm Irene is quickly approaching.

Variety was the game today with 5 different species of whales as well as a quick look at a blue shark! A minke whale began the trip. This "small" 25 foot whale was surfacing frequently, showing us its pointed nose. Atlantic white sided dolphins were seen next. This small pod was busy feeding so we continued on.

Atlantic white sided dolphins

Soon we saw some more splashes. Pilot whales!! These whales used to be seen frequently in the late summer/fall, but have been MIA the past few years. Typically, pilot whales feed during the night and are a bit more lazy at the surface during the day but today was the exception. This pod of 15 was on the move and very difficult for us to keep up with!

Pilot whales

As we tried to keep up with the pilot whales, we saw a couple of spouts in the distance. These were fin whales! We tried to get a few looks but these large whales were also on a mission.

Fin whale

Soon, we ran out of time and began to head for home, but this was when our trip really started to get good- a familiar fin whale, Fjord, surfaced on our ride home!

Fin whale, Fjord

Again we decided to keep on to the west when a larger pod of dolphins appeared. These were much more social than the small pod we saw early in the trip. The dolphins were surfing the wake and even jumping out of the water!

Time to go home...again...and of course we spotted more spouts to the west! These were sei whales- another not-common species for Jeffreys Ledge! Though we have been seeing sei whales frequently for the past few weeks, they typically are only seen on about 5% of our trips!

Sei whale spout

Sei whale dorsal fin

Now we were really running late and had to turn west yet again. We did pass by a minke whale on the ride in but otherwise the ocean was quiet. What a great day filled with variety! We are all wondering what the storm will bring, and how the wind and seas will affect the marine life on the Ledge. Looking forward to Tuesday when we can get back out there!

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August 23, Granite State

2011-08-23T21:21:00.006-04:00

Sometimes it can be the variety of whales that makes a trip or it can be one whale that makes a trip...Today, we experienced both! Variety is the spice of life and we had quite the variety on both trips.

This morning, we were lucky enough to encounter 5 different species of baleen whales, a rarity on Jeffrey's Ledge! We had minke, fin, sei, humpback, and an extremely rare Northern Right whale. Spending quality time with all of these whales throughout our morning was fantastic and having a large crowd on board, made it that more enjoyable! Being able to share our excitement about marine life to our passengers is always a pleasure, and what a trip it turned out to be!
Here is a photo of fin whale #9904, first seen in 1999 and this whale is a known female who's last calf was in 2008! I wonder when she will bring new life to Jeffrey's ledge again?

At one point while watching our fin whale, another whale surface right next to this whale and we thought it may be a calf, but this whale has been seen several times this season and has been by itself every time. As we continued to watch it we realized it was a Sei whale swimming right next to the fin whale. One sei whale turned into two and before I realized it the Fin whale surfaced in between the two sei whales! It was very unusual to see, but awesome at the same time. Here is one of our sei whales from the morning!

We decided to venture further to the east to see what else may be in store for us and we stumbled across a Humpback whale. This humpback was identified as Obelus, a 3 year old humpback who was born to Echo in 2008. This whale was taking short dive intervals and stayed along the surface to a long period of time, enabling us to get great looks at this whale and it was a great way to end our morning trip.

As we left for the afternoon trip, we headed to the same area we were in the morning, hoping for some of the same luck we had in the morning. As we approached the Ledge, we found a nice pod of toothed whales, atlantic white sided dolphins! These active whales kept us quite entertained and what a nice way to start our afternoon trip!

As we made our way further off shore, we saw several whales throughout our travels. We had 2 sei whales in the area, along with several fin whales as well. As we tried to get a few looks at a few different whales in the area, they seemed to be taking long dive intervals and when they were at the surface, they were changing direction quite frequently making it a difficult task. We love having multiple whales in the area, but on occasion, it can be difficult to assess which ones to look at and whales do not always cooperate. They are wild animals afterall and we can never perdict their behavior. Some of the whales must have had travelling on their minds and were most likely looking for more food in the area.

As we were trying to figure out which whales to stay with, we spotted several other spouts on the horizon. We decided to try our luck and investigate what may be out there...and I'm gad we did!

We found a young adult humpback whale, and we decided to see what would happen with this whale. As we were waiting for the whale to resurface, it did so shortly thereafter right next to us off our right side. The whale was heading in our direction, so we shut down our engines and continued to watch this whale as it exhaled, then went on a shallow dive and swam underneath our boat. When whales dive under the boat, they can show up on the other side, or change direction while underneath the water and show back up on the same side they went down on. As we were waiting and looking around for this whale, people on the upperdeck started pointing down towards the water off the left side...then suddenly one of our crew members yelled that it was right underneath us off the left side at 9 o'clock! Literally, this whale was right underneath the boat, simply hanging there for everyone to see! It surfaced slowly and exhaled on everyone aboard! What an amazing sight! We were able to identify this whale as Obelus! It was the same humpback from the morning trip and this whale seemed to be very curious about us! Obelus continued to swim underneath us and switched sides allowing everyone aboard to enjoy this unbelievable experience. As I said earlier, sometimes all it takes is one whale to give you an experience of a lifetime!

Thank you to everyone who joined us today! While spotting the rarest of the baleen whales during the morning, a northern right whale, and having a close encounter with a humpback in the afternoon...what a day it turned out to be!

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August 21 Granite State

2011-08-21T22:19:00.008-04:00

You would think all of us aboard the Granite State would become accustomed to what we might see on our whale watches day in and day out on Jeffreys Ledge over the seasons. Well many a time we are just as thoroughly enjoyed as we hope many of you are who join us in search of some of the largest animals on the planet. Today turned out to be a day just like that...

The seas provided bit of of added entertainment today as the winds created quite the rocking motion throughout the day. All of our hardy passengers were great, even the few who couldn't quite keep everything down, as sometimes the roller coaster effect doesn't quite fit into every body's sense of enjoyment. However, as usual, the whales did not disappoint.

This morning we started the trip with a single Sei whale. This whale, while not traveling too far, spent a bit of time underneath the water. Luckily we were able to get some nice close looks at this whale since we were able to track the line of footprints (or flukeprints) this animal kept leaving behind on its travel pattern. While spending time with this whale we started to see spouts further out in the distance and decided to investigate what other whales we had near by.

Our single spout turned into 3! We came across a trio of Fin whales maneuvering the waters together. What a great comparison for all our passengers to relate the size of the Sei whale we had seen just minutes ago to not only one, but 3, of the 2nd largest animals in the world!

One of our Fin whales going on a deeper dive

While spending time with these whales we actually saw one leave a long trail of red clouds in the water; it was whale poop! This animal definitely excreted a lot of waste as the line of red in the water seemed to keep appearing. This whale had recently been feeding on krill! But that wasn't the only excitement we saw from these whales. Just as we watched the cetacean defecation appear on the surface one of the other whales suddenly took an extremely tight turn as it went to go further underneath the water. What did we see next? Only half the tail above the surface of the water, something you definitely don't normally get a chance to see from this species!

Above: You can just barely make out the tip of this whale's dorsal fin on the left as its tail cuts through the water as this whale bends tightly to the right
Below: Hello Fin whale tail!

Even being such incredibly large creatures, it is amazing just how easily one of these mammals can change course almost instantaneously, shifting 60+ tons of whale body with it! Next thing we knew two of our whales came up with gallons of salt water pouring out of their mouths!

Two Fin whales coming in towards the boat as they both surfaced filtering water our of their mouths!

These animals had just scooped up lots of food in the water and were currently straining all the salt water through their baleen plates. What a sight! Our trio gave our passengers a great "show" as these animals were really just going about their daily activities this morning. Fantastic.

This afternoon we had a bit of another surprise. We ended up seeing a surface active group of highly endangered North Atlantic Right whales. Suddenly out in the distance we saw large dark grey objects appear out of the water. The whales were rolling over and frolicking with each other. To know you are near by one of these extremely rare whales (less than 500 left in their entire population!) is quite the humbling moment but knowing there were a few creating quite the disturbance at the surface was astonishing. All of us on board definitely were not anticipating the activity we witnessed today. It truly goes to show you that wildlife really does hold the upper-hand out in the open ocean and venturing out to catch a glimpse of wildlife, especially such large mammals, can be a wondrous experience no matter what the behaviors.

One of our familiar Fin whale's who continues to be spotted traveling with at least one other associated Fin whale near by over the course of this season!

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Saturday, August 20 on the Atlantic Queen

2011-08-21T20:13:00.000-04:00

Great day today! We had beautiful sunny weather and relatively calm seas, and sightings of 101 whales! That was 1 baleen whale, a humpback, and about 100 very active toothed whales - Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

We saw the humpback first - it was a 10-year old whale named Doric who was last seen last year. Doric was spending lots of time underwater, taking 10-13 minute dives. But we got a few great looks at its tail:

Then, thanks to our friends on the Starfish, we got to watch a terrific pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! I haven't seen many dolphins this season, and during a "normal" season we see these toothed whales only on about 15% of our trips, so I was excited by this sighting. And to make it even better, one of the dolphins leaped in the air at least 20 or 30 times! I don't know what it was doing - if it was some sort of play behavior, feeding behavior, or some other demonstration, but it was spectacular to watch.

Several times, we were surrounded by dolphins. Often, 5 or 6 dolphins will swim towards the boat at one time, but today we could look over the side of the boat and see 20 or 30!

Thanks to all who joined us today, and especially to Shelly and Steven, who I think brought us some good dolphin luck from Beacon!

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August 20- Prince of Whales

2011-08-20T22:05:00.003-04:00

Refreshing day on the water today. Although it took us some time to find the whales today (why must they move around so much??) we eventually got some wonderful looks at a large pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins and a humpback whale!

The dolphins were seemingly all around the boat- everyone got great looks!

The humpback whale was a bit more difficult to keep up with. The first dive we witnessed was 13 minutes! But at least we got to see the whale's tail on this dive!

The second time it surfaced, it was feeding and came up much closer but no chance of a tail on that surfacing :( We have identified this whale as Doric, a 10 year old humpback whale born to Glo in 2001.

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August 20 Granite State

2011-08-20T20:54:00.009-04:00

Today was all about the fastest whales in the ocean! This morning we spent time with 3 large Fin whales, including a pair that surfaced right alongside the boat, as we all a trio of Sei whales swimming around the ocean together. Sei whales are THE fastest swimming whales in all the world's oceans, reaching burst of speeds over 30+mph! The Fin whale comes in a close 2nd, as these large mammals can reach burst of speeds traveling over 25mph! Thankfully all our whales were not utilizing their powerful abilities and remained relatively close by giving our passengers some great looks at these animals throughout our trips today.

This morning we started our trip with a very familiar whale. It was Dingle the Fin whale.

Dingle the Fin whale

This animal was first sighted in 2003, unseen in 2004, but has been documented by Blue Ocean Society affiliates on Jeffreys Ledge every year to date since 2005! How cool is that?!?! Dingle made it's debut to Jeffreys Ledge earlier this season (June 20th to be exact) but it has been over a month since Dingle was last sighted by the Granite State (spotted on July 13th). We may never know where Dingle ventured off to for the past month but we are thrilled to know this animal has returned back to the Ledge to continue to look for and eat food.

Dingle surfacing for a breath of air

Some of our other sightings this morning included an Ocean Sunfish and two other Fin whales. This sunfish, as these creatures always seem to do, had no fear and swam right on over towards the boat today! At least everyone on board got a chance to get some close up looks at such a weird looking fish. Even though this fish didn't spend too much time on the surface of the water, it was definitely one of the larger sunfish we have seen this season.

One large Ocean sunfish just underneath the water

As for our Fin whale pair, while spending time with them they surfaced just off the port side of the boat as you could really get a sense of just how large this species truly is!

One of our Fin whale surfacing for a breath of air before continuing on a deeper dive!

The second Fin whale in the pair was showcasing a lot of its body as a few times when it went on a deeper dive a large majority of it's tailstock was seen above the surface of the water. At one point the very top portion of its tail was just visible on the ocean's edge! We definitely do not see that all the time when watching these very large creatures!

Sequence of a very strong arch in this animal's body as it goes on a deeper dive. In the last photo you can actually see the outline of this whale's tail at the surface!

The trip ended with a few other baleen whales, Sei whales to be exact, moving through the water together. Even though we do not have a Sei whale catalog (but think one might be started this winter!!!) you could definitely distinguish these 3 whales from each other. Check out the very unique dorsal fin shapes and body markings seen on our trio of Sei whales:

This afternoon we were back out and looking for whales. We ended up with the same area from the morning and came across 2 Fin whales. Once again it turned out that the two whales we spent time with this afternoon were not any of the ones spotted from the morning!

Above: Fin whale #0828. This animal is very distinct with its uniquely-shaped dorsal fin and scar pattern on its tailstock.

Below: This Fin whale is a bit harder to distinguish from other Fin whales as it has rather a generic-shaped dorsal fin and only small subtle scars along its body.

What a quick shifting/movement/rearranging of these large whales recently! Same spot and completely different individuals. Awesome.

Seems to be anybody's guess as to what we may come across tomorrow!

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August 19- Prince of Whales

2011-08-20T09:11:00.004-04:00

A great afternoon out on the water today!

We left the dock and motored out to Jeffrey's Ledge where we quickly came upon a large group of sei whales! We spent time following a group of four of these rare and endangered animals, while many more sei whales spouted and and swam around us. The group of four put on a spectacular show for us, surfacing close to the boat and spouting rainbows in the sunny sky!

After we left the four sei whales we briefly came upon two more sei whales who were just as happy and willing to spend a few minutes showing us how majestic they really are!

While we were watching the sei whales some of the passengers noticed a disturbance in the water not too far away. We went over to the area and discovered a very rare North Atlantic Right Whale! We arrived just in time to see his distinctive "V" shape blow a few times and then a very amazing fluke as he dove down into the water column. What a treat!

Thanks to everyone who came out with us on the Prince of Whales today! We hope you had an amazing time! Also, Congratulations to Nancy Elliot who won our Whale Adoption Raffle!

(Pics to be coming soon.)
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August 19 Granite State

2011-08-19T20:59:00.007-04:00

Lots of marine life continues to utilize the productivity found out on and around Jeffreys Ledge! This morning we had a baleen whale grand slam (4 species in 1 trip!) and two pods of Atlantic white-sided dolphins! We first spent time watching a large pod of dolphins spread out amongst a vast area of the ocean milling around the area, taking turns moving this way and that.
Moving further offshore we ended up coming into an area where we "hopped" from one species to another, to another, in not a big section of ocean. First we gazed upon a large Fin whale circling around the area. Unfortunately this whale has some very distinct scarring along its body, an indication that at one point during this whale's life, it was most likely entangled in fishing gear.

Above: Note the prominent scars seen just in front and just below the dorsal fin of this animal
Below: The other side of this scarred whale. From this side you can barely even tell this whale has any scars on it.

Thankfully this whale only still shows the scars from this incident and has continued to thrive out in its natural, and sometimes dangerous, habitat. As we turned to leave this whale one of our passengers spotted another spout. It was a different species. This time it was a Humpback whale. This whale was on the move, spending a lot of time underneath the water, and surfacing out in the distance when it did finally return to the water's edge for another breath of air.

Zio the Humpback whale

Even out in the distance we could determine who this whale was, thanks to the photographs we took, as well as the "upturned" flukes this particular whale has. When this animal goes on a deeper diver and raises its tail above the surface, the tips of both ends of the tail almost look to be flared out (something this is not commonly seen amongst Humpback whales) and helps to verify specifically who this animal is even when it is not close by.

We also got a chance to spend time with another pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. This particular group was on the move, constantly swimming in a steady direction, and creating quite the disturbance on the surface of the water. When these animals were first spotted out in the distance all you could see was lots of splashing. These whales were cruising through the area! The special treat with this group was that there were lots of birds flying overhead constantly searching for any scraps of food the dolphins may be leaving behind.

Shearwaters, terns, and even a few seagulls were at the ready in case they spotted something yummy to eat.

A few Great Shearwaters passing by the boat in a hurry to stay with the dolphins

It was quite the spectacle as the whole scene played out like organized chaos. Nothing like being witness to the food chain in action in the open ocean!

The trip ended with a few Sei whales scattered around the area including a trio right at the end. What a nice way to wrap up the morning.

One of our Sei whales

This afternoon we headed out to where we had sighted whales in the morning. What did we see first this time? Sei whales! We ended up seeing 4 different animals, including a pair surface right down the side of the boat.

Even Sei whales can be identified between each other:
Above: This Sei whale has a few linear scars along its back
Below: This Sei whale has many circular markings found along its back

Even though these whales are the fastest swimming animals in the ocean, they were definitely not using their speedy qualities this afternoon. Even though they were spending a bit of time underneath the water, they would surface close by allowing for some great looks at such sleek and fast creatures.

Two Sei whales maneuvering through the ocean together

The day wasn't over just yet as we ended up coming across two more whales, a pair moving through the water, of the second largest animals in the world! It was a pair of Fin whales.

One of our Fin whales. Much larger than the Sei whales we spent time with earlier!

Neither one of these whales were the same from the single Fin whale sighted during our morning travels to this area. It was a nice surprise to find these two whales moving through the water together.

Our pair of Fin whales at the surface

With such the variety of animals being seen recently we can only imagine what we might come across tomorrow. Stay tuned, or better yet come find out yourself!

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Atlantic Queen August 18 2011

2011-08-19T10:09:00.004-04:00

Alot of life out on the water today. We had a nursery pod of Atlantic White Sided Dolphin that we spent some memorable moments with, they jumped, came under the boat and gave ALL of our passengers some wonderful looks.

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August 17- Prince of Whales

2011-08-18T14:20:00.005-04:00

11 Sei whales, 2 fin whales and a few blue sharks on Wednesday's Prince of Whales trip!
Here are a few pics of the sei whales:

Thanks for all the enthusiasm and patience with the whales today!

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August 17th, Granite State

2011-08-18T13:20:00.008-04:00

The weather had kept us on land for the last couple of days and when that occurs, we always wonder how the whales are affected if at all by storms that travel through...has the food ditribution changed, who or what are we going to find? We often ask ourselves that everyday that we are out on Jeffrey's Ledge, but it can be even more of a question after not being out for a couple of days.

What a day it turned out to be! We started our day with a harbor seal sighting right outside Rye harbor and had a feeling that it may be a sign of good things to come. As we headed to Jeffrey's Ledge we encountered a very nice Ocean sunfish who seemed quite curious about us as it swam by the right side of the boat. They are the largest bony fish species in the world and are one the most unique creatures that we see while looking for cetacean activity.

After a few minutes we ventured further off shore and I was truely amazed at the results! In total for the morning we saw 8 blue sharks, another sunfish, 11 Fin whales, 1 Humpback whale, and an astonishing 31 Sei whales!! Honestly at one point during the trip I found myself speechless to what I was seeing. There were whales everywhere and it was impossible to physically make our way to all the whales that we documented, but we had several large groupings of Sei and Fin whales and we were simply surrounded throughout the majority of the trip!

We ended our trip with a sighting of 1 Humpback whale...and with so many whales around I was surprised we were able to see 3 different baleen whales during our trip. This whale was identified as "Andes," a 4 year old born in 2007 to a mother named Scratch. This is the first time that we have seen Andes on Jeffrey's this season and we just named this whale about one month ago! This was a great way to end our trip and we were so anxious to return for more action in the afternoon.

Our afternoon was much like the morning with high numbers of Sei and Fin whales. We had 2 blue sharks before reaching the ledge and they seemed very relaxed along the surface.

In total for the afternoon we had 10 fin whales, 23 Sei whales, and schools of bluefin tuna to add to the excitement. We were still in awe with the high numbers of whales in the area and simply couldn't believe the further we travelled, the more whales we saw and continued to see exhalations on the horizon.

Even though there has been a large number of Sei whales in our area, they are quite rare to see. We do not have a catalog of these whales like we do with known humpbacks and finbacks that have returned to Jeffrey's Ledge for a number of years, due to the rarity of sighting this particular species. However, we can tell these whales apart also by the shape and size of their prominent dorsal fin. This Sei whale photographed above looks like someone cut the very tip of the dorsal fin off, which will help us identify this whale in the future if we see this whale again.

We were able to end of our whale watch with a pair of fin whales and it was a great experience for eveyone aboard.

The feeding conditions on Jeffrey's right now are perfect!

I am thankful everyday that I get to go spend time with whales in their natural habitat and that I have shared my experiences with the passengers that have some to visit. It was a pleasure to have everyone aboard and I thank you for taking time to visit with us and the whales! Hope to see you in the near future.

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Atlantic Queen August 17, 2011

2011-08-17T19:17:00.004-04:00

Today was an incredible day on the water, Sei whales were here again in BIG numbers.
Some looks today were very "close to boat" Other blows were in every direction we looked. They kept us very busy constantly changing direction all around us. These whales can reach 45-55 feet in length and weigh in about 17 tons. We also has 2 small Mola mola's cruise by the boat today. In total today we had 27 sightings, a remarkable number and a remarkable day. Congratulations to Keegan who won a Ladder adoption, and happy belated birthday!

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Sunday August 14 - Starfish

2011-08-15T18:10:00.004-04:00

The passengers on the Starfish got a rare and special treat today, despite the less than stellar weather!

We left the dock in the afternoon and headed out to where our friends on the Atlantic Queen were watching a rather uncooperative fin whale. This finback was taking long dives and was being pretty elusive by the time the Starfish arrived. We were just about to give up hope on being able to spend much time with this finback when we spotted another species of whale!

A sei whale had swum up to save the day! This lone sei spent the next hour and a half swimming near the boat, much to the delight of everyone on board. He was feeding beneath the water, taking short dives and coming back up to the surface to breathe. He also rolled over under the surface too!
While sei whales are typically very rare to our area of the Gulf of Maine, we've been seeing quite a few of them on Jeffrey's Ledge during the last week. We were very lucky to have so much quality time with the sei who put on such a good show for us! Thanks to all who came aboard yesterday, and stuck it out through the rain on the return trip to the dock!
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Sunday, August 14 on the Atlantic Queen

2011-08-14T23:50:00.000-04:00

Trio of Sei Whales!

Lots of sei whales again today! We saw 8 sei whales, although there were many more blows on the horizon, and also got great looks at 2 different fin whales.

Our first look was at a fin whale, a whale known in our catalog as #9721 - and a whale we first saw in 1997! This whale was also seen in 2006 and 2010.

The head of fin whale #9721

Fin whale #9721, who has a couple small nicks in its dorsal fin

Then we moved on to some sei whales, and were surrounded! We spent most of our time with a trio that stayed together, although there were several other whales in the area. The sei whales were zig-zagging all around, and often came up quickly to the surface, affording us great looks at their head and jawline.

Sei whale and a Wilson's storm-petrel

Two Sei Whales

Sei whale - those white scars may be from lampreys - for more on lampreys and whales, see [this article]

Thanks to all who joined us today!

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August 14- Prince of Whales

2011-08-14T23:19:00.006-04:00

Fin whales were the name of the game today! Although we did spend a little time with a minke whale and blue shark, the fin whales were absolutely amazing!

A passenger informed us of "a few blows over there". Sure enough, several blows/whales were close by! 3 fin whales feeding together!

Fin whale with a line of migrating birds in the distance

The 3 fin whales included Ladder, a new one this year that we are referring to as "New Squiggle" until it gets assigned an ID number, and another new whale!

Two fin whales- both new to the area this summer

Check out this beautiful chevron/blaze marking!

We left the trio, passing by a pair, to see another pair/trio in the area! Certainly lots of fin whales all scattered about today!

View down the blowholes of a huge fin whale!

In spite of the sprinkles, we had a fun day on the water with the second largest animal on Earth! Thanks to everyone for joining and supporting us today!

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August 14 Granite State

2011-08-14T21:49:00.011-04:00

There are trips we spend such quality time with whatever we find that it is truly an experience. Then there are times when the sheer number of whales seen is just as amazing as you see so many exhalations out in the distance. Then there are those few times when we have both. Such was the case today and what a day it was.

This morning ended up being not only about lots of whales, but such a variety of species! We spotted and watched 3 Fin whales on our voyage out and around Jeffreys Ledge.

Fin whale dorsal fin

We also saw 17 different Sei whales, animals smaller than Fin whales, but THE fastest swimming whales in all the oceans! With an untrained eye both Fin whales and Sei whale can appear to be very similar in shape. While this is true (other than Fin whales typically being larger than Sei whales), Sei whales usually have much taller, or more broad, dorsal fins that help us to distinguish these species apart from each other. Can you notice a difference?

The "small" dorsal fin of a Fin whale
vs.
The "larger" or more broad shape and size of a Sei whale's dorsal fins pictured below

Not only did we spend time with our baleen whale species we also came across a quick, and large, moving pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins. The dolphins were cruising through the area so quickly we had to keep a good pace with the boat to get the chance to stay with and watch these whales.

Our pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins crashing through the water clearly on a mission to somewhere out east

Of course we don't only stop and watch whales! We also saw a blue shark and even a "bold" ocean sunfish during our travels this morning. This particular, bizarre looking sunfish, had no fear and swam all along the entire length of the boat before we could back away from this very friendly fish.

A fearless Ocean sunfish cruising down the side of the boat

With such an awesome morning trip what in the world would possibly make the afternoon comparable to this morning? Well, as it seems to be the case recently, little did we know how the afternoon would unfold...

We started out with a single Sei whale and a few others out in the distance. Then we continuously started to see spouts from whales a bit further offshore. With lots of time to explore this afternoon we chose to make our way further away from land. Well our first stop ended up on at least 6 different Sei whales circling the area. Not only were these whales circling around, they were weaving through the water in every which direction, but not at ultra-fast speeds in which they are capable of. This allowed us to shut off the boat and enjoy the whales all around.

Incoming Sei whale with its footprints of fluke-prints left behind where this whale last was

Out of the blue what appears out in the distance? Only a highly endangered North Atlantic Right whale! Wow. Both Sei whales and Right whales feed exclusively on animal plankton, most favorite items being copepods. There must have been plenty of food in the water to have not only a handful of Sei whales chowing down on all the plankton but to have such a rare sighting of a Right whale also taking advantage of all the food in the area. What a pleasant, and unknown, surprise. With more exhalations being seen from whales further offshore and this super rare and very restricted regulations of such a species when in the area of a Right whale, we knew it was time to go. On the plus side, seeing so many other spouts out in the distance we figured why not, we had plenty of time to check things out and spend time with the whales we were seeing in the distance!

The next time we stopped we were surrounded by at least 15-20 other Sei whales!!!! We couldn't believe what we were seeing. Literally everywhere you looked spouts from Sei whales were there! Not only were all these whales also circling around the area we were treated to these animals actively feed just under the surface of the water. Large disturbances and even some open mouths by whales on their sides kept being seen all over the place!! Completely and utterly beyond words!

Above: If you look very carefully you can actually see the eyeball of this Sei whale as it lays on its right side with its mouth wide open scooping up lots of food in the water!
Below: Another Sei whale also rolled over on its ride side with its flipper above the waterline!

Then what happened once again? Suddenly we saw out in the distance a few whales with no dorsal fins; there were more highly endangered Right whales in our mists! Overwhelmingly phenomenal.

Each and every day truly is such a wonderful chance to have the opportunity to spend any time with such a large and graceful mammal such as a whale. While who knows what we may or may not see next time we venture out to Jeffreys Ledge we do hope each of you enjoy the sights, sounds, and experiences you have with a few hours spent out on the open ocean in the Gulf of Maine.

You know it is a good day of whale watching when everyone, and everything, are checking out the whales surrounding the boat!

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Saturday, August 13 on the Atlantic Queen

2011-08-14T08:39:00.000-04:00

Fin Whale

What a fantastic day - we saw 19 whales and a shark! There were blows everywhere - our summer intern, Zelia, and I were amazed at how many whales we were seeing right near us, and how many were off in the distance!

We started off our afternoon watching Sei whales circling and zig-zagging through the water in search of prey. These whales have a very distinctive, sickle-shaped dorsal fin, which is one way we can distinguish them from a fin whale. They are also slightly smaller than fin whales. In total, we saw 14 Sei whales on today's trip!

Sei Whale

Sometimes, we could follow the Sei whales by their flukeprints!

As we watched the Sei whales feed, a smaller dorsal fin appeared - a shark! It appeared to be a small basking shark, meandering along the surface, likely feeding on the high concentrations of plankton that had also drawn the Sei whales to the area.

Basking Shark

Then we saw an even bigger blow out in the distance - it turned out to be a huge fin whale, who was also feeding at the surface! Several times we got to see much of its gigantic head as it lunged toward the surface. Over the trip, we were lucky enough to see 3 more fin whales.

Fin Whale, showing its distinctive white lower jaw

Fin Whale

Then we saw more blows in the distance, and a tail - a humpback whale! It was Striation, the 4-year old calf of Pepper. Striation was obviously feeding on krill - indicated by the bright red whale poop that followed almost every time this whale lifted its tail!

With calm seas and warm weather, the day couldn't have been much better. Thanks to all who joined us!

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August 13 Granite State

2011-08-13T20:23:00.008-04:00

Whales, whales, and more whales! We saw lots of whales today, as our numbers have been so high over the past few days due to all the Sei whales that continue to be in abundance (at least for the time being!) out on Jeffreys Ledge. We saw 14 baleen whales this morning and 17 baleen animals this afternoon! Crazy...

This morning's trip was highlighted with multiple sightings of Sei whales in pairs, trios, and even a quartet of these fast moving creatures surrounding the boat! The group of 4 whales we spent time with literally kept us hostage as they were circling so close to the boat you could watch them turn underneath the water with such speed and agility at a moment's notice! Footprints (or fluke-prints) from these animals kept surfacing in every direction as the whales continued to zip and dash around, under, and nearby the vessel! Absolutely incredible.

Sei whales surrounding the boat!

These whales were circling around an area where there was a good amount of fishing gear in the water. Thankfully none of the whales got too close to those lines in the water!

A Sei whale surfacing for a breath of air while signs of fishing gear lurk in the water nearby!

The sightings didn't stop there as we also found a couple of Fin whales passing through the area as we sat watching some of the other species out on Jeffreys Ledge this morning. We also came across a pod of 50 Atlantic white-sided dolphins making their way through the area. There were lots of terns flying overhead these dolphins, and even a Manx shearwater in the mix, as many of these birds were searching for any signs of scraps of food left behind these whales. This particular pod of whales was quite active as many of them powered through our wake and waves with such force they ended up sky-rocketing out of the water, up and down, multiple times!

We also ended our trip with yet another baleen species, a Humpback whale. It was Striation still circling the area. This whale surfaced multiple time filtering lots of salt water out of its mouth, an indication of some feeding going on underneath the water! With a handful of blue sharks to wrap up the trip we had quite the sightings for the day including a GRAND SLAM of baleen whales (4 different species of baleen whales in one trip: 1 Minke whale, 2 Fin whales, 1 Humpback whale, and 10 Sei whales!!!). Not a bad way to start the day.

This afternoon we ended up seeing even more Sei whales than what we had been treated to in the morning hours; 15 in total! Again, we saw more pairs, trios, and even another group of 4 circling all around the boat!

Sei whale dorsal fins

We also got a really quick glimpse of a Fin whale moving through the area before we eased our way over to where Striation could be seen out in the distance. While spending time with Striation we continued to watch 2 other pairs of Sei whales zig and zag back and forth out in the distance, with even a couple swimming close by on our starboard side.

While the whales have been seen in droves of numbers the past few days who knows what tomorrow will bring. Did you know we can go entire seasons (May-October) and never see a single Sei whale during any trip??? Wildlife has its way of surprising us every day and we can only imagine what might be awaiting for us tomorrow. Hope you get a chance to come find out for yourself soon too!
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August 13- Prince of Whales

2011-08-13T19:34:00.007-04:00

Sei whales are still in the area! But before we found them, we said hello to a minke whale inshore, and then to our good friend Ladder, the fin whale. Surprisingly, Ladder was alone. He is frequently seen associated with other fin whales.

Fin whale Ladder

As we continued on, a blue shark popped up nearby. We got some quick looks at it before it took off.

Blue Shark fins

A bit further offshore, we saw several sei whales!! Sei whales have been in the area recently, feeding on copepods and krill that are currently abundant. Though sei whales are the fastest species of baleen whale, this unlucky one managed to still get hit by a boat. The scars from a propeller are very visible and deep.

Sei whale with propeller scars

The sei whales were singles, pairs, trios and sometimes in groups of 4! It seemed wherever we looked we saw spouts of more and more of these rare whales.

2 sei whales

Certainly a lovely day for whale watching! Hope you enjoyed the trip!

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August 12 Granite State

2011-08-12T21:20:00.006-04:00

Not only did we see a variety of marine life out on Jeffreys Ledge today, we saw LOTS of varieties of marine life during both our trips today! Both trips included at least 18 different whales spotted, many of which were moving through the water in pairs and even trios!

This morning started off with a couple different Fin whales. We were able to identify one of these animals as #9724.

Many a scar found before and after the dorsal fin of #9724

This whale was first sighted in 1997 and has been seen on Jeffreys Ledge over the years. Unfortunately this whale has some new scars around the back half of its body, impacts due to human activity out in the ocean. Whales and people utilize this watery habitat for a variety of reasons. More often than not, whales end up having encounters with boats (of all shapes and sizes!) as well as entanglements in fishing gear, both of which can negatively impact their lives. Thankfully many whales are able to heal and continue swimming the open seas with only scars/markings along their bodies; a constant reminder to us of the threats these mammals face. Some whales are not as lucky as they have been known to perish as a direct result of such occurrences. We all do our due vigilance while out on the water, constantly looking for signs of whale activity, and respecting these animals in their watery niche of the world.

While we do not know exactly who this whale is just yet, the very distinctive scar on this whale's back allows us to differentiate this whale apart from other Fin whales we may see during our travels.

The day continued with another sleek moving whale, smaller than a Fin whale, but the fastest whale in the ocean, a Sei whale. But it wasn't just one Sei whale we found, we came across 3!

The dorsal fin of a Sei whale. Note the much larger, or prominent, dorsal fin of this species

All three of these animals were surfacing together maneuvering through the water with such synchrony. Amazing.

Two of the 3 Sei whales at the surface

The trip wasn't over yet though. We also saw 2 different Blue sharks, 6 other Sei whales scattered about, and out in the distance a North Atlantic Right whale! Not only were we seeing so many animals crossing paths, beyond all the Sei whale activity was one (out of less than 500!) critically endangered North Atlantic Right whales! What a special treat to end an already awesome trip.

With such a great trip behind us it wasn't rocket science that we were going to head back out to where we had seen the Fin whales and some of our Sei whales from our morning adventures. Little did we know what the afternoon out around Jeffreys Ledge was going to have in store for us. The first whales we sighted were a trio of Sei whales. The interesting fact about this sighting is that one of the trio from this group was one of the same Sei whales we had seen in the morning!

Even though this Sei whale has a "smaller" dorsal fin than most other Sei whales we sighted, the unique markings along this animal's back verifies it was one of the same whales photographed this morning

This particular whale was still actively circling around the area with "friends" even though they may have been different accompaniments than the morning trio. These animals always find a way to surprise and intrigue us each and every day, no matter what the species! With some great looks at these animals we pressed on as we could see more spouts out in the distance. What did we come upon next? Nothing we had seen in the morning and yet we weren't far from some of the same areas we had spent time in during the morning hours. For one we had a Fin whale identified as #0627 who had not been seen during the morning but yet there it was this afternoon.

Fin whale #0627

We also came across a Humpback whale. Specifically, Striation the Humpback whale. The last time this whale was seen on Jeffreys Ledge was 8 days ago, on August 4th.

Above: The underside of Striation's tail
Below: Striation surfacing for a breath while filtering out gallons of salt water from its mouth!

Who knows where this whale has been spending its time over the past week but thanks for making your presence known today!

The open ocean is home to activity from mammals of all kinds! Humans and whales alike utilize the waters for many different reasons, just make sure you respect and keep a lookout for both!

We decided to check out some of the other spouts not too far in the distance since we had some more time for exploring so off we went to see what else was lurking nearby. My oh my did we find quite the activity all of a sudden. 3 Fin whales surfaced right alongside each other, 2 Sei whales started to zig and zag back and forth from one side of the boat to another, and in the middle of all that was another Humpback whale! But that wasn't it. There was a pod of about 25 Atlantic white-sided dolphins making their way through the area as well!

Atlantic white-sided dolphins cruising through the area

Four species all in sight of each other at the exact same time!!! No matter where you looked there was some sort of whale activity nearby! What a remarkable sight.

One of the Sei whales in the area. Even within species you can tell these whales apart from each other. This animal has many small markings all long its back which helps us distinguish this Sei whale apart from others in the area.

We were able to get identification photographs on our Fin whales and Humpback whale in the area. Our trio of Fin whales included #9618 and two others that do not yet have a number but have been seen multiple times this season on Jeffreys Ledge.

Fin whale #9618 which has a noticeable section of its dorsal fin missing

Our Humpback whale in the are ended up being Zio (photo below). This whale too has already been sighted multiple times on Jeffreys Ledge this season and has resurfaced once again in our neck of the sea.

After all that we STILL had a little bit more time to explore. We were about to make our way to another spout we saw a few miles away when a Right whale surfaced in the distance! Another baleen whale to add to the list of an already awesome number of sightings seen this afternoon. Looks like just about every species was out taking full advantage of all that Jeffreys Ledge had to offer today. What a day.

Congratulations to all our first-time whale spotters today. You folks picked quite the day to get your first experience of some of nature's wild giants. Thanks to Dick and Sharon for adopting Flask and a special thanks to our intern today, Lacey, who did an amazing job collecting data and deciphering between all the whales we spotted today! Beautiful weather, awesome whales, and great passengers!

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August 12- Prince of Whales

2011-08-12T20:56:00.016-04:00

16 whales and a pod of dolphins today!! And we got reports from other boats in the distance of more whales by them! Lots of birds too!

A minke whale surfaced not far from shore. We followed this whale for a bit and then continued east.

Minke

Soon a blow caught our eye. This whale still hasn't been identified but could be #0635, a whale first ID'ed in 2006. As we were with this whale, we saw splashing in the distance and decided to motor over there. We found the splashing to be from a small group of Atlantic white sided dolphins! One of these dolphins had a recent injury on its back and side. I'm not sure what caused the injury but it seemed to be doing ok and was keeping up with the pod.

Two Atlantic white sided dolphins, one with a fresh injury

Then a fin whale was seen nearby and heading our way. Not long later, the dolphins rushed over to the fin whale and began to move with the huge whale. The dolphins and the fin whale were here for the same reason- food!

Fin whale filtering water from its mouth

This whale is #0926, a whale first seen just a couple years ago.

fin whale #0926

fin whale and dolphin surfacing together

We left #0926 and the dolphins and found more blows ahead. We stopped on one- a fin whale, that appeared to be feeding. As we looked down, we could see part of what the feeding was all about- krill!

Krill!

Fish were feeding on the krill, and the fin whale was eating both!

Lunging fin whale- pleats on the underside are facing us

This whale was #0543, a whale first see in in 2005 and likely not seen since 2005!

Leaving this hungry whale, we started to head for home but were quickly side tracked by a pair of fin whales! Our good friend Ladder and his buddy graced us. We at Blue Ocean Society have been tracking Ladder since our formative years- back in 1996, but his sighting history dates back to 1984!

Ladder

As we started to head for home, again, we saw another blow. This was an unusual visitor- a sei whale! We have been seeing sei whales a bit but they are still normally further offshore or seen later in the season.

Sei whale!

Leaving for home again, we were yet again side tracked by another pair of fin whales! We didn't have time to spend with these two but look at how close to the Isles of Shoals they were! You can see Star and Appledore Islands in the distance!
Absolutely beautiful day on the water! Thanks to all who joined us today!

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August 11- Prince of Whales

2011-08-11T21:16:00.008-04:00

Fin whale were close to shore today! We were always in sight of land, which is rare when we normally travel 20+miles offshore to see whales!

See the land, water tower and windmill in the background??

The fin whales were moving around a lot but Captain Ryan did his best to get the boat in the position to give us some great looks!

Nose, blowholes and dorsal fin of a large fin whale

Even the blows from these whales were impressive!
We did identify 2 of our 5+ fin whales. This one is #0615 and has a scar from an entanglement behind its fin.
Also on our way home, we had a surprise when a fin whale popped up near us. This one was #0926, first seen in the area in 2009.
Thanks for visiting us and the whales today!

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Atlantic Queen August 11

2011-08-11T20:26:00.003-04:00

Nancy Anderson, one of Blue Ocean Society's board members came out to see her adopt a whale "ladder" today with her husband John and friend Marcy visiting from Ohio.

We had a boat load of passengers on today, campers, locals and first time whale watchers. We had just passed the shoals when we saw our first blow,moments later it turned into 4 blows. We had only been out for about 35 minutes!
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August 9- Prince of Whales

2011-08-10T23:40:00.006-04:00

The rare, elusive Sei Whales were seen in force on Tuesday's trip! Each day amazes me- how things change in so little time. One day we are watching 9 minke whales and a huge fin whale...and then the next day we see 7+ sei whales in the same area, with no fins or minkes to be seen.

Sei whales (sei- from the Norwegian word for pollack), are usually more pelagic- spending most of their time further offshore. But their food (copepods) has been in abundance lately, and like anything else, the whales will follow their food.

The fun part was seeing the difference among the individuals...looks like I will creating Blue Ocean Society's very first sei whale catalog this year!

Sei whales can be solitary or be seen in small groups. Here we see a group of 4 distinct fins, surfacing all together! Beautiful day with some very rare animals!

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August 9 - Atlantic Queen

2011-08-10T14:18:00.004-04:00

So many whales on yesterday's trip on the Atlantic Queen! We spotted a few blows fairly early into our journey, and were happy to find a small group of Sei whales! We don't see these baleen whales very often, so it was exciting to get some good looks at them.

A few Sei whales then turned into A LOT of whales! We saw at least a dozen just in our immediate area - it seemed like whichever direction you looked, you could see another blow or dorsal fin!

We had one trio of whales that stayed particularly close to our boat - they were surfacing very frequently and two of them seemed to be staying close together, so I believe it may have been a mother and calf!

We also had a great Minke whale, who circled around our boat a few times, so close that you could actually see it swimming just under the surface!

On the last surfacing before we headed back to the harbor, we had a big surprise - an endangered North Atlantic Right Whale appeared amidst the Sei whales we had been observing! We got some amazing looks at this rare animal to end our great day of whale watching.

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August 9th, Granite State

2011-08-09T20:55:00.004-04:00

Often times, people will question us aboard the boat as to whether we get bored with going out day after day in search of whales. I always say "No," because sightings change from trip to trip and from day to day and whales are constantly moving around, travelling to different areas to feed all summer long. That is one of the main reasons why we collect population data throuhgout every season. Everyday is truely different out on Jeffrey's Ledge and if someone asked me today what I thought we might see, today's sightings would not have been mentioned. I may have said that we occasionally have rare sightings in our area and that one never knows what they might see when ventruing out in search of cetacean activity.

I say this because we had almost 20 Sei whales and 1 highly endangered North Atlantic Right Whale on each of our trips today and it was truely unexpected! Not only did we see the rarest baleen whale in the world, but we had another rare sighting as well and almost 20 of them throughout each trip! At one point during the morning we had close to a dozen Sei whales all around the boat and they were in groups of 4 or more!

When and if we get to see Sei whales, for the most part it is usually during the fall when they are travveling through the area feeding on zooplankton. In fact, the last time we had Sei whale activity was in May on the very first whale watch of the season. We can tell them apart from other whales (as far as species identification), by their large hooked dorsal fin, and the symmetrical coloration on both sides of their head. Sei whales look very similar to Fin whales, but fin whales are larger and they are asymmetrically colored, meaning they have a different coloration pattern on each side of their head. From afar, these two species can be mistaken for one another, but at a closer inspection, one can tell these 2 species apart by the characteristics mentioned. Sei whales are usually about 50+ feet long and weigh 30-40 tons!

Both Sei whales and Right whales feed mainly on zooplankton and here is one of our many samples taken throughout the day. Feeding conditions must have perfect today for these two rare species to be in the area and in high abundance for the Sei whales!

Today was truely unexpected and I will remember the experience for quite some time! Thank you to all our passengers who joined us today.

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August 8- Prince of Whales

2011-08-08T22:41:00.010-04:00

Very fun whale/bird watching trip today!

We found:
9 minke whales
1 fin whale
3 harbor seals
3 ocean sunfish
3 sharks (likely blue sharks but not confirmed)
925 Wilson's storm petrels
98 great shearwaters
4 manx shearwaters
4 cory's shearwaters
1 sooty shearwater
39 northern gannets
1 parasitic jaeger
7 lesser yellowlegs
1 cormorant (offshore-out of habitat)

Here are a few of our photos from the trip:

Ocean sunfish

Great shearwater

Plethora of birds

Minke whale pointed rostrum

Minke whale blowholes

Minke whale with entanglement scar on dorsal fin

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Atlantic Queen August 8, 2011

2011-08-08T19:13:00.005-04:00

Lots of life out on the water today! We started with a very shy Minke whale who came up twice and then gave us the slip! The rain came in and we continued our search. We found 3 Mola mola's all swimming together, then a Blue Shark made a quick appearance. As we continued and the skies cleared we saw a blow up ahead it started as 1 blow, then 2 and before we knew it, it was 5 Fin whales all together! They quickly went there own way except for 2 big adults. They were circling around doing some feeding. How did we know they were feeding? Check out the photo of whale poop! these whales were feasting on krill today, a favorite food of the Fin whale. Congratulations to the Barker family from Plymouth, NH who won our raffle today and to all who came out with us today.

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Saturday, August 6 on the Atlantic Queen

2011-08-06T21:03:00.000-04:00

Fin whale head

What a terrific day!

We were surprised by our first sighting - a rare North Atlantic right whale - a species that numbers around 450 animals. Then we moved on to what seemed to be a fin whale party! We saw a total of 7 fin whales in the area.

What was a most exciting about the fin whales was a trio of fin whales who consistently surfaced together - often right next to each other. And they are all whales we've seen before. This trio included Ladder, one of our favorite whales (and an adoptable whale), and two whales we first saw in 2006.

Ladder, showing his distinctive ladder-like scar and the small notch in his dorsal fin. We've been seeing Ladder since 1996, but he was originally sighted first in 1984 on Stellwagen Bank

#0622, who has a notch in the middle of the dorsal fin

#0635 - it's hard to see here, but this whale has a large notch and a 'squiggle' at the top of its dorsal fin! This whale was also seen off Mount Desert Rock in Maine in 2004 - two years before its first sighting here.

In this same spot, there were 2 minke whales and also an unidentified shark species (which we only got a quick glimpse of, so no pictures...). There were also some gillnets in the area - a net that is strung between buoys to catch groundfish. Thankfully, the whales seemed to be feeding fairly close to the surface, since they were taking short dives, hopefully minimizing their potential to interact with the nets.

All in all, it was a great day on the ocean with some of the largest creatures on Earth!

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August 6 Granite State

2011-08-06T20:55:00.006-04:00

Jeffreys Ledge has continued to keep us on our toes all season and today was no exception. We have been having whale sightings over the past week or so in an area of Jeffreys Ledge, and yet everytime we venture out there we are once again surprised as to what we come across. So many people often ask if it ever gets old; going out and looking/watching whales twice a day all summer long. The instant answer is always no as just as it continues to be today, no two trips ever seem to be the same. Different whales, different species, different behaviors, are always changing which makes these wildlife watching extravaganzas all that more exciting! Just as our passengers don't quite know what they are going to see once they step aboard the boat, we too have no idea what we may come across or spend time with on any given trip. We typically return to areas where whales have most recently been seen, or have been reported seen, and search the horizon the entire time for any indication of whales nearby. It truly is a sense of excitement everytime we leave the harbor.

This morning we found a large fin whale inshore of where we have been seeing animals. With such a nice surprise we spent some great quality time with this animal, identified as #0926, circling around the area. This whale was not showcasing its "greyhound of the sea" abilities and staying relatively close by during each surfacing.

Fin whale #0926

With some wonderful looks at this slow moving animal (for the time being) we ventured on to other areas where the Ledge has continued to provide whale sightings over the past few days. Well we searched and searched some more. It took a bit of time but we ended up coming across another Fin whale. This animal was definitely scooting about the area but even with it coming up in all directions around the boat we got some nice looks at this animal. This whale has not been matched up to any of the whales in our on-board catalog which means this particular Fin whale may be a brand new visitor to Jeffreys Ledge! The distinct scar found on this animal helps us to tell this whale apart from other Fin whales even though it does not yet have a identifying number associated with it yet.

Above: Quite the scar found on the back portion of this Fin whale's body
Below: The dorsal fin this same Fin whale

Glad to see this whale is still around the Ledge as we have spotted this whale a couple times already this season.

This afternoon we started by heading out to where we had seen Fin whale #0926 this morning. Well just as Jeffreys Ledge has been surprising us recently, we we in for yet another one. Instead of finding #0926 we saw spouts from 4 Fin whales, none of which were #0926! There was a pair swimming through the water together and two others out in the distance in different directions. As we eased our way into the mix of the 2nd largest animals in the world suddenly they all seemed to circle around us. In a matter of minutes the two Fin whales out in the distance moved into the area, the pair continued to maneuver together, and then suddenly all 4 whales were in unison just off our starboard side synchronizing their surfacings! What a moment to have 4 animals suddenly converge together and swim so close to the boat. Wow. Just as quickly as these whales came together, they dispersed just as fast. After going on a deeper dive two whale showed up out in the distance off our starboard side and two out in the distance off our port side. Easy come, easy go. Incredible. We stuck with the whales a bit closer to us and realized we knew exactly who both these animals were. It was Ladder and Fin whale #0622.

Above: Even from a distance we can distinguish Ladder from other whales based on (unfortunately) the scars of a boat propeller on this whale's back
Below: This distinct shape of Fin whale's #0622 dorsal fin

Both whales have been sighted over the course of the season but this was our first time seeing these two animals swimming along together this year.

Fin whale's #0622 and Ladder surfacing close to each other this afternoon

After some great looks at these whales we were off in search of more activity. Well turns out it didn't take long, and it was yet another surprise the Ledge had in store for us this afternoon. A critically endangered North Atlantic Right whale was passing through the area. Whatever the reason this species has been making itself known over the past few days in our neck of the woods we truly appreciate the rarity of just one of such a limited population of animals. Wow again.

With a bit more time we checked out a few more areas but no whale activity was nearby. Then we saw a spout. Not one, not two, but three Fin whales. And to make things even more interesting it was 3 of the orginial 4 we had started our trip with. They were on the move, swimming in a steady direction, just moving through the water with such ease and giving us a nice way to end the day out on the water.

It sometimes tends to be a bit tricky capturing two of the second largest animals in the whole world in one photo, they are just so large!

Thanks to everyone who joined us today and who kept the search going all throughout our trips. It really is amazing how you can see marine life at any point once you get out into the open ocean these whales call home. A special thanks to Debbie for adopting Pinball today! A whale we saw earlier this season and who was just spotted only two days ago by our whale watching friends up north in Bar Harbor, Maine!

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August 5- Prince of Whales

2011-08-05T22:03:00.008-04:00

What an amazing day today!!! As we left our dock and cruised down the Merrimack River towards the Atlantic Ocean, we radioed our friends on the Granite State to hear what they saw on their morning whale watch. They said they had a pretty good trip, but where they found whales was a little too far for us to go.

We motored out about 20 miles to where we had found whales the past few days but didn't see anything besides a few birds. As we continued onward, we found ourselves getting slightly closer to where the "hot report" from the morning was. More radio conversations with fishermen coming in, and whale watch boats going out..... We decided to bite the bullet and head to the most recent reports, which were still miles away from our position.

Captain Billy spotted a blow on the horizon....still miles in front of us. I was busy clutching my stomach which was feeling like a rock after I had inhaled a 650-calorie chicken pot pie. Did you know that a fin whale eats the caloric equivalent of 1538 mini Marie Callendar pot pies EACH DAY?? Ouch.

The blow that Billy saw was a fin whale!! As we got near it, the whale surfaced several times at close range. We got some nice looks at it, including its distinct fin shape and saw that this was fin whale #0622, first seen in 2006! This whale appeared to be feeding on schools of fish (not chicken pot pies) just sub-surface.

Fin whale #0622

Our friends on the Atlantic Queen II came over for some views as well and we stayed with this whale for a few minutes before leaving to search for more whale activity.

Fin whale #0622, near the Atlantic Queen II

Soon, our friends on the Starfish (have I mentioned how great it is to have friends on the ocean with us??) informed us of a pod of dolphins and a fin whale not too far away. We got to the location and found the fin whale was WITH the dolphins! This is my FAVORITE situation for whale watching! It is almost like cheating....we just follow the dolphins around and then BAM, the fin whale surfaces with the dolphins! It is absolutely amazing and so much fun! So the dolphins basically track the fin whale while it is down for a dive...zigging this way and zagging that way, following the fin whale whether it likes it or not. We track along with the dolphins and get amazing views of both the huge fin whale AND the dolphins! Poetry in motion!

Fin whale surfacing

Fin whale with dolphins

Fin whale distinct chevron pattern with a dolphin

As we got great looks at the fin whale, we have not identified it yet. It does have a very new and fresh scar on it behind the fin- likely caused from an entanglement in fishing gear. Several scars were actually documented along the entire body of this whale. Entanglements are a huge threat to all species of whales and an issue we are all working hard to prevent.

Fin whale, with new wound behind the dorsal fin, with a dolphin nearby!

The Starfish watched this event with us for a bit before heading home and we soon headed for the barn as well.

Starfish departing as a fin whale surfaces

On our way in, we saw our passengers on the upper deck pointing to something off to the left. We spotted another blow. As we looked more closely through our trusted binoculars, we saw that this whale was not a regular to the area. This was a very very very special whale! The v-shaped blow, large head, lack of dorsal fin and smooth-edged black fluke told us we were looking at a critically endangered north Atlantic right whale! This is the rare of the rare with less than 500 animals in their population. 500. How many kids were in your senior class? How many people live in your town??

Although we are not allowed to get close to right whales due to their critical status, we all were impressed by that huge black fluke in the distance as it went down for a deep dive. Absolutely amazing, especially knowing that these whales may well be extinct in less than 100 years.

Thanks to everyone for your patience today in our search for whales, and a special thanks to our good luck charm, Bob (Intern Lacey's dad) for bringing us good luck today!

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August 5 - Atlantic Queen

2011-08-05T21:31:00.004-04:00

What an awesome day on the Atlantic Queen! The weather was great for whale watching and for being out on the boat. Our first animal of the day was a fin whale, once again. This whale was being fairly cooperative, but sadly had what appears to be a fresh wound on its tail stock. These large creatures may not have any natural predators, but they do face a lot of threats from human activity, such as entanglements and ship strikes. Luckily this whale survived its incident and hopefully will heal just fine.

We then came across some toothed whales - Atlantic white-sided dolphins! We don't see these animals very often, so it's quite surprising that we've seen them on 3 trips this week! This was definitely a nursery pod, with many calves spotted among the group. With the sunny weather and clear water, you could see the dolphins swimming underwater right alongside the boat!

After leaving the dolphins, we found another fin whale in the area. This whale had a vertical notch on its dorsal fin and appears to be whale #0622, first seen on Jeffreys Ledge 5 years ago!

Thanks to all of our great passengers!

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August 5 Granite State

2011-08-05T21:24:00.009-04:00

We were fortunate enough to have sharks, Fin whales, and Atlantic white-sided dolphins on both of our trips today! Even with many of the same species today each trip was definitely unique in its own way.

We started our morning trip with a great group of Atlantic white-side dolphins. These whales were just milling about the area and surfacing so close to each other we were able to get some great looks at these toothed-whales. This particular group of dolphins included individuals that were most likely born just a month ago as a few of them were "tiny" in comparison to the large adults in the pod. With these animals in such a closely knit group you could get an amazing size comparison between the young and adult whales.
After leaving the dolphins our travels took us to an area where we ended up seeing 4 different Fin whales and even a few blue sharks swimming at the surface.

One of our morning Fin whales

As for the sharks, most of the time we have to ease our way over to any we see because as soon as they realize a large vessel is coasting nearby, they typically get a bit spooked and quickly go down into the depths of the ocean to get away.

One of our Blue shark swimming along the surface of the water. This shark is facing to the left as the left fin seen above the water is the dorsal fin and the fin on the right-hand side of the photo is the tail of this fish

The surprise of the morning was another baleen whale that at first glance was thought to be a Fin whale. As we made our way closer to this whale spouting we realized that's not a Fin whale, that's a Sei whale!

Above: The dorsal fin of a Sei whale is typically much taller and more pronounced than the dorsal fin of a Fin whale (below)

Sei whales do not feed on small schooling fish like Fins whale do but instead feed exclusively on animal plankton! We were not expecting to find this whale out amongst the Fin whales but here it was zipping around the area (Sei whales are the fastest swimming whales in all the ocean!) and we got the chance to spend a bit of time with it before venturing on to other Fin whales in the area. What a nice surprise for our passengers and crew!

This afternoon we were back out searching for wildlife and what was the first whale we see out in the distance, only the rarest whale in the Atlantic, the highly endangered North Atlantic Right whale! But that wasn't the only whale around. As soon as we slowed down and were about to maneuver through the area (as restrictions for boats of all shapes and sizes are in place) when in the vicinity of a right whale, a Fin whale surfaced just off the bow! This Fin whale was heading in the opposite direction of the Right whale and so we made our way over to get some looks at one of the 2nd largest animals in the world!

Fin whale #0926 surfacing just off our port side this afternoon!

Once clear of both large baleen whales we were off again in search of more activity. We had a bit of a challenge offshore as there were plenty of whales being seen in the distance but not once, twice, or even three times, but 4 times in a row(!) all the Fin whales we stopped to take a look at clearly wanted nothing to do with us! We would see spouts out in the distance watching as they would surface for a handful of breaths, dive, and return to the surface a few minutes later, but each and every time we made our way over to them they would disappear. Wildlife was definitely winning in the game of "hide and seek" this afternoon. But alas, our efforts paid off as we got some great looks at one of the Fin whales in the area.

And just as we turned for home our Captain spotted one of the 2nd largest shark in the world, a Basking shark!

The dorsal fin of our Basking shark as it swam just under the water

On our way home we saw a bit of splashing not far away and quickly knew what it was. There was a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins nearby. What a nice way to end our trip. But that wasn't the only surprise. As we made our way towards the dolphins a Fin whale surfaced amongst the toothed-whales!

Above: A Fin whale associated with a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins

Below: The close-up of a recent injury to this whale

Check out the large Fin whale meandering through the water as it is being escorted by the dolphins all around:

We often don't get the chance to see interspecies interactions such as these dolphins, which have average lengths of 6-8ft long full grown, swimming all around a Fin whale which is almost 10x's larger than the dolphins. Just spectacular! What a way to end our day out on the ocean.
Many thanks to our passengers today. We had many first-timers and lots of returnees that we enjoyed having join us once again for another wildlife encounter offshore! We look forward to every one's annual return once again, now with even more seasoned whale spotters for next time. A special thanks to "Ladder's Grandmother" Brenda, for adopting Fjord the Fin whale today for her dinosaur-loving grandchild. Nothing like giving the gift of an animal thought to be larger than any of the dinosaurs that ever lived on earth! And to Barbara for adopting Stripes as they certainly put on a show for us today!

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Wednesday and Thursday, 8/3 and 8/4 aboard the Granite State

2011-08-05T10:52:00.008-04:00

My apologies that it has been several days since a sightings update from the Granite State. Cetacean activity has been quite busy for us over the last several days and I wanted to share some highlights from both days with all of you. On Wednesday, the sea conditions were simply fantastic for whale watching and we headed to Jeffrey's Ledge to see what or who may be around. Throughout the day we had several sightings of harbor seals, blue sharks, and even an ocean sunfish. Our whale sightings included several Fin whales, including #0622 and #0810. During the morning we had fin whale #0622 travelling with another fin whale, who has yet to be identified and as we spent time with these whales we started to see lots of splashing around them. There happen to be dolphins among these Fin whales and they seemed to be bow riding the fin whales instead of the boat! Fin whales are one of the fasest species of baleen whales, and on a rare occurence, dolphins will bow ride a fin whale instead of a boat, since any pressure waves will help the dolphins swim more efficiently and use less energy.

The afternoon was very similar with multiple Fin whales on Jeffrey's Ledge and great dolphin activity as well. These 2 types of whales were not interactive with each other this time around, but the glassy sea conditions made for great perfect dolphin viewing!

One of the most unique experiences of the day, happened to be that we were lucky enough to see 2 North Atlantic Right Whales. What was more unique was that we had one whale on each trip, and they were different individuals! With less than 400 left worldwide, we truely had an appreciation for just how rare of an occasion it was!

On Thursday, we started with a young adult humpback whale named Striation. This whale was feeding deep underneath the water and surfaced frequently for all our passengers. Just look at the "Striation" on the left side of the fluke!

After spending time watching this whale feed, we continued to different area of the Ledge and found several Fin whales, including #0926 and #0723. Here is #0723 travelling with one of our unknowns from the day.

There were two separate pairs of fin whales in the area and as we were watching one of them, a tiny bird, flapping it's wings extremely fast, flew by the pilot house. The captain said, "Hey, that's a Puffin!" I was so excited and couldn't get the microphone on fast enough. It flew by several times and here are a couple of photos of this little bird in action!

Our afternoon started a little inshore of Jeffrey's Ledge with yet another rare sighting of a North Atlantic Right Whale. We believe it is a different individual than the two seen on Wednesday and it's amazing to have such an experience where we are seeing a few around. Being so rare, when and if you see one whale, it is a great deal of their population. They feed on a type of animal plankton called copepods, and you can actually fit about 4,000 copepods in one teaspoon! These 50+ ton whales are able to sustain themselves on some of the tiniest organisms in the world! They surface skim feed and the conditions must be just right for them to be feeding inshore of the Ledge!

As we approached the Ledge, we found ourselves surrounded by fin whales. They were scattered about, but we were able to get great look at a few individuals, including our adopt-a-whale, Ladder!! Ladder, who usually likes companionship and is almost always with other fin whales, was travelling by himself and gave us great looks along both sides of the boat.

While watching the fin whales in the afternoon, a Northern Fulmar decided to land on the water's surface and seemed quite curious about us. With rare whale and bird sightings, it was another unexpected day on the water. Proving that one never knows what they may find when venturing out to search for cetacean activity.

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August 4 - Atlantic Queen

2011-08-04T20:44:00.007-04:00

Started off looking a little rough out on the ocean today, but we ended up with a beautiful afternoon! Our first find was a fin whale, who was taking rather long dives.

Luckily this whale was taking at least 8 breaths every surfacing, so we managed to get some good looks none-the-less!

We then left our friends on the Starfish to search for more whales. Our next fin whale was taking very short dives as well as short surfacings, in stark contrast to our first animal! Because of this, we were able to get some amazing views of this whale, who was surprisingly close to shore. We even got to see some whale poop, which the passengers were very entertained to learn. There must have been some good feeding in that area today!

Thanks to our great passengers - hope you enjoyed the trip!

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August 4- Prince of Whales

2011-08-04T19:51:00.007-04:00

Fin whale #0402 stole the show today! We found this whale just a few miles off the Merrimack River. 0402 was feeding, surfacing close by while filtering out tons of water with its baleen.

Fin whale #0402 about to blow

Fin whale #0402 charging through some food

How do we know it is #0402? Look for the small circular scar in the front edge of the fin!

More feeding- check out the white lower jaw!

As several minke whales were buzzing about as well, we got some amazing looks at 0402 and its smaller friends but decided to continue on as we were still so close to shore. As we ventured out to where we had a nice trio of fin whales yesterday, our friends on the Atlantic Queen and Starfish told us of a fin whale nearby. We cruised into the area but that whale was being a bit willy-nilly and taking longer dives so we decided to leave the pack and head back in shore to relocate 0402.

As the shore got closer we finally saw the spout of 0402, and a couple more minke whales too. We were running short on time but did get some nice looks as this whale started to travel.

Fin whale 0402 with the coastline in the background.

Beautiful Thursday on the ocean! Thanks to all of our guests from all over the world today!

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Wednesday, August 3 on the Atlantic Queen

2011-08-03T21:47:00.000-04:00

Fabulous day with some of my favorite fin whales!

The seas were blue and glassy calm and the weather was warm. What more could we ask for? Well, after getting some looks at a minke whale, we came upon 3 fin whales together - 3 representatives of the 2nd-biggest species on Earth! And to make it even better, one of the whales was Ladder, one of our favorite whales and a whale who's consistently hanging out with other whales.

And then to cap it off, we spent time with a single fin whale - another favorite - "Dingle"!

There were also lots of minke whales, and Wilson's storm-petrels around, giving us plenty to look at. Thanks to all who joined us on this great day!

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August 3- Prince of Whales

2011-08-03T21:42:00.011-04:00

We were all about the fin and minke whales today!

We began trip by getting brief looks at 2 minke whales- the first was elusive but the second was much better!

Minke whale

As we waited for this minke whale to reappear, Captain Hawk Eye spotted a couple of tall blows a few miles to the east so off we went.

As we got closer, we realized that the 2 whales were actually 3 huge fin whales! Fin whales are my favorite species, and having a trio is rare! It got even better once we obtained close looks at them. One was our old friend, Ladder! The cool part about Ladder is that he is nearly always seen with another fin whale. In this area, fin whales tend to be solitary so the pairs, trios and groups are always a treat for us.

Ladder and "friend"

Ladder's unique chevron pattern

Ladder's distinctive marking

All 3 fin whales!

Mystery fin whale- still need to attempt to ID this one

As we watched the trio, several minke whales popped up here and there. As we left to search for a spout that we saw in to the west, a couple more minkes surfaced! Even though minkes are not endangered, we certainly don't see them every day so having 9 of them in total today was great!

We found the spout of anther fin whale and soon determined this to be another friend nicknamed Dingle! We first saw Dingle in 2003 and he has become a regular visitor to the Ledge!

Fin whale #0369, aka Dingle

Dingle was busy swimming offshore, towards Ladder and his buddies. As time grew short, we headed for home, but our day wasn't over yet. Our deckhand, Jessie, told us she wanted to see an ocean sunfish OR dolphins today- her 21st birthday. Before we knew it, we spotted a triangular fin flopping up and down in the water. Ocean sunfish!!! This was only the Prince of Whale's second sunfish sighting of the year. These large fish are the largest species of bony fish in the world! Happy Birthday Jessie!

Spotted body of the ocean sunfish can be seen just sub-surface.

Thanks to all of our fun passengers and congrats to our lucky raffle winner from Alabama!

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Starfish August 2, 2011

2011-08-03T08:55:00.005-04:00

The Starfish and her passengers got some great looks out on the water yesterday!

On our way out to the ledge, we came across a minke whale who stayed by the boat for quite some time. We were quickly joined by a second minke and it appeared that both of the whales were taking short dives beneath the surface to feed.

After we left the minkes we headed out to where our friends aboard the Atlantic Queen were hanging out with some Atlantic White Sided Dolphins! It was a small pod of about 30 individuals, and they were frequently diving down and moving around to feed on the nearby fish, but we managed to spend a lot of time observing them! The passengers on the bow of the Starfish even got a glimpse of a dolphin jumping out of the water!

After we left the dolphins we headed out a short ways and came upon the ocean's second biggest animal, the finback whale! This fin put on a great show for us, spouting and diving down frequently! The passengers were amazed at how big this creature was! Pretty soon we were joined by a second fin whale and another minke whale a little ways off!

Thanks to everyone who came out on the Starfish today, and I hope everyone had an amazing time!

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August 2 - Atlantic Queen

2011-08-02T21:52:00.008-04:00

For the second day in a row in the Atlantic Queen, we found a great pod of Atlantic White-sided dolphins!

In addition to these toothed whales, we also saw two different species of baleen whales today! There were quite a few minke whales in the area...

We also found two very cooperative fin whales! They were taking relatively short dives and doing a lot of circling, likely indicating that they were feeding.

One of these fin whales had some extensive scarring on its back, which appears to be from previous entanglements in fishing gear. Entanglements are one of the biggest threats to marine life, such as whales, as the animals are often unable to untangle themselves and could end up being severely injured or killed as a result. Luckily this whale survived and gave us some great looks today!

Edit: Dianna just told me that one of our finbacks from today's trip is a whale named Dingle (Bp #0369).

Thanks to all of our great passengers, and Happy 13th Birthday to Lauren!

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August 2- Prince of Whales

2011-08-02T19:14:00.007-04:00

In spite of the threatening storms, we ended up with a great trip today. We began with a quick-moving pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins. These little guys were zooming all around us, swimming this way and that. They were moving so quickly that I didn't even try to get a photo of them, knowing my pictures would just be of the white water behind them!

As we watched the dolphins, we spotted a minke nearby and then a spout from a large whale in the distance. As the clouds started to build, we continued on to check out this whale.

We found a fin whale! This huge animal was taking short dives and not traveling very far so we were able to get some nice looks at it.

Fin whale blowholes

Fin whale chevron pattern

Fin whale dorsal fin

We took some pictures of the identifying markings of this whale but have not ID'ed it yet. Perhaps it is a new visitor to the area!

On our way in, we searched for a blow that we saw from a few miles away, but we never actually found the whale :( As we headed for the barn, we were surprised to see our passengers pointing adamantly to the left- they found us a minke whale! This minke soon turned into 2-3 minkes and gave us a great finale, especially as one of them traveled right alongside us for a few minutes.

Minke whale

Minke whales are often underrated but lately we have been having wonderful luck with these "small" whales!

Thanks to our 3 families who adopted whales today!! And congrats to Diane from NY who won a whale adoption in our raffle!

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August 1 - Atlantic Queen

2011-08-01T21:24:00.011-04:00

Great day on the Atlantic Queen! We started off with a few good looks at two different fin whales, although they were taking un-character-istically long dives this afternoon.

We searched for awhile after we left these whales and our friends on the Starfish. Then our intern, Amy, spotted some splashing off in the distance...a pod of Atlantic White-Sided Dolphins!

These dolphins put on a great show for us, performing lots of acrobatic leaps and swimming right up next to the boat. We even saw a few calves in the pod!

Thanks to Amy for her great spotting, and these awesome dolphin photos!

Congratulations to Francheska for winning our raffle today, and thanks to all of our patient passengers!

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August 1- Prince of Whales

2011-08-01T19:21:00.007-04:00

Lots of minke whales and a couple of awesome feeding fin whales today!

We started our trip with at least 3 minke whales relatively close to shore. The views of these minkes were amazing- especially considering that these whales have the bad reputation of being "difficult" to watch. These animals disproved that! They were wonderful!

Minke whale

In the area with the fin whales were lots of pelagic birds including juvenile and adult northern gannets, Wilson's storm petrels and even a few shearwaters. Folks often don't think to look at the birds as we are awaiting a whale's surfacing but these smaller life forms can be quite fun to observe:

Mature gannet, taking off

As we headed out a bit further, we found a finback whale- this is the same whale we have been seeing in the past few weeks but is new to the area this year. This big guy was seen on yesterday's trip about 6 miles from where we saw it today!

Fin whale speeding up to corral some food

Beautiful chevron pattern

Distinctive dorsal fin of our new fin whale friend

As we were watching our first fin whale feed on swarms of krill near the boat, a second fin whale charged into the area to catch some lunch as well. I'm not sure who this whale is or if it is new to the area, but look at this amazing swirly chevron!

Second fin whale's chevron

As we continued in search of more mammalian life forms further to the east, we came up short and headed home. Thanks to all of our interested passengers and especially thanks to those of you who had questions mid-trip! Congratulations to Sana, our winner of a humpback whale adoption today!

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August 1- Starfish

2011-08-01T19:03:00.003-04:00

Today was all about the minke whales!

Despite the haze, we had some amazing looks at a pair of minkes on our way out to Jeffrey's Ledge. They flanked either side of our bow and came pretty close to the boat. We were over a big school of bait fish so we were able to witness these small baleen whales diving down to feed!

Shortly after we left those two minkes we suddenly came upon one of the North Atlantic's great predator fish; a blue shark! He stayed close to the boat for several minutes before diving down beneath us. What a special and surprising treat for everyone on board!

We then came upon our friends aboard the Atlantic Queen who were getting some great looks at the ocean's second biggest whale, the finback! Unfortunately for us, we arrived in time to see this fin whale take a few short breaths followed by a long, deep dive. The whale surfaced again twice more, each time taking a few quick breaths and diving back down for several minutes before we decided it was time to move on.

On the way back in to shore we were able to spend almost an hour with a spectacular little minke who was feeding! We got some great looks at this minke from all sides of the boat, but it seemed as if he especially preferred to surface close to our bow and startle the passengers!

All in all, a great day out on the water and I hope everyone enjoyed the amazing views we got of some of the Gulf of Maine's great species!

Lacey Bluemel

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July 31 Prince of Whales

2011-07-31T20:44:00.005-04:00

Beautiful fin whales today! We had excellent conditions for watching these huge marine mammals. We found a total of 4 fin whales on the Ledge today and spent most of our time with 2 of them.

This whale surfaced near us and we could see the whale rising from the depths even before it broke the surface to breathe!

Fin whale spout

Fin whales have always been my favorite whale for many reasons but mostly because of their grace and beauty, and the fact that we don't know a whole lot about them.
I mean, really, look at how pretty that swirly chevron pattern is:

And here is another look at that chevron- beautiful!:

One of our fin whales was one that we have seen several times this summer but is a new visitor and will be given a name/ID number this fall
Congrats to our lucky raffle winner today!

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July 31 Granite State

2011-07-31T20:42:00.006-04:00

Tomorrow is August already?? Where does the time go? While time continues to fly by we continue to enjoy the whales that have been on and around Jeffreys Ledge recently. Our morning trip started with 2 Fin whales scooting about the area. They appeared to be heading in a direction we weren't planning on going so we got a couple looks at them before parting ways and continuing further offshore to areas we have been having some luck with finding whales. We spent most of the morning watching more Fin whales as a few of them surfaced for some breaths of air just alongside the boat.

Nice looks as this whale showcases its white lower jaw and swirly chevron pattern

The whales were a bit spread out but that gave us a nice opportunity to watch these animals, get some identification photos, and maneuver to other individuals to determine which whales exactly were focusing their morning efforts in searching for food in the area. A few of the animals have yet to be given identification numbers but we are continuing to see some of the same Fin whales over the course of the season thus far. In the research aspect of all that we do out on the open ocean, these sightings are very exciting for us!

One of our Fin whale we are finding still to be on Jeffreys Ledge over the past few weeks!

We also had a few surprises during our time spent in an area with our last Fin whales of the morning. Close by an Ocean sunfish was meandering through the water and so we ventured on over to get a look at this odd looking fish. Just as we were turning for home we also came upon 2 other Ocean sunfish that appeared to be swimming in unison with each other. Their spacing and swim pattern allowed us to have one of these fish on either side of the boat. Nothing like being sandwiched between two weirdly-shaped creatures of the deep!

One our of Ocean sunfish enjoying the sun as much as all of us on board!

Our afternoon travels took us to an area where we started with one very distinct individual. It was Fin whale #0723. As soon as this whale went on a deeper dive we knew EXACTLY who this whale was. The super unique/distinct/large marking on the left side of this whale is an animal who was first sighted on Jeffreys Ledge in 2007 with this scar pattern looking exactly the same.

The left and right sides of Fin whale #0723

While this series of scars along this whale's body easily helps us to identify this particular Fin whale from other Fin whales, it is an unfortunate reminder that so many of the scars we use to help tell these animal apart from each other are a result of the human impacts we pose on all whales in general. Entanglements in fishing gear and scars from boat propellers, sailboat keels, and other scrapes from boat bottoms are the major threats all whales currently face today. A very sad realization that nowadays the only threats these wild creatures have are ourselves. This is why when all our affiliated Blue Ocean Society whale watching vessels go out to see such amazing wildlife that our captains do an incredible job respecting the space and movements of all the whales we encounter so we can enjoy these species for many years to come.

Check out some of the whales sighted today and all the different scars located on these animals:

Above and below both of these Fin whales have different scar patterns found just beyond their dorsal fins

This whale has a few small markings at the top of its body, potentially from a sheering of a boat propeller

The day continued with a few more Fin whales around, all of which were different from the Fin whales we had seen in the morning! So amazing to think just how many Fin whales were utilizing the productivity of Jeffreys Ledge today with at least 10 different Fin whales sighted during both of our trips!

Fin whale #0828 seen this afternoon

One of the whales we spent some time with actually "left" us a large surprise on the surface of the water... red whale poop! This whale has recently been chowing down on some krill out here!

Dissipating red cloud of whale poop!

The weather was beautiful to spend time on the ocean today and with our excited and inquisitive passengers we had quite the nice day watching whales.

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You're Invited: Trash Bash and Sunset Cruise

2011-07-31T19:31:00.000-04:00

This isn't our regularly-scheduled whale sightings update, but I wanted to let you know about some exciting events we have coming up this week -

Marine debris research and cleanup is one of our major programs, and we'll be working this week with the Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean to identify accumulations of marine debris underwater off the NH coast. You can learn more about this project at our Trash Bash on Thursday, August 4, 5-7 PM at the Kittery Point Yacht Yard. Great for all ages - you can tour the 60-foot sailing vessel American Promise and even seen a trash-finding ROV in action!
Tropical Sunset Cruise - our annual Sunset Cruise on the Prince of Whales in Newburyport is coming up on Tuesday, August 9, 7-9:30 PM. This cruise provides much-needed funds that support our research and education programs to help protect marine life. You can find more information and buy tickets here.
We also have our regular monthly beach cleanup at Jenness Beach on Wednesday, August 3 at 6:30 PM. Spend an hour and make an immediate impact on the health of the marine environment!

That's all for now... back to our regular whale news. We hope to see you soon!

Click here for more details on all these events

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