Momma fin whale!

Sunday on the Prince of Whales, we were treated to two species- minke and fin whales! With the rain finally out of the picture, we cruised out to Jeffreys Ledge with the bright summer sun, and a little bit of wind at our backs! Summer is finally here!

A minke popped up and was spotted by a diligent passenger to give us our first sighting of the day. This 25-foot whale was easy to keep track of as it stayed close by and didn't give us the "minke slip". From there, we cruised along the edge of the ledge and found another minke whale along with a finback whale! Finbacks are still my favorite, and I was excited to see who this whale was. We got some pretty good looks, but I'm still not sure who this friend was. More work looking at our catalogs is needed, or perhaps it could be a new friend!

As we said goodbye to the whales and headed for home, I mentioned that folks should keep there eyes out for possibly more whales on the trip in from the ledge. Sure enough, two more fin whales popped up in front of us! One of these whales we were able to see VERY closely as she turned right for us and swam in front of our bow!! Definitely the best look at a finback that I've had in a long time! With the whale so close, I thought I knew her. Glancing at our on-board catalog, I confirmed my suspicion. This was #9904! (I know- not a very exciting name...) 9904 has been watched on Jeffreys Ledge since 1999, and has been seen every year since 2002. We have known she is a female since 2005 when we first saw her with a calf, and just last year she brought her second known calf to the ledge!

As we were running out of time with 9904, we saw another fin whale just a mile to the south. We didn't have time to head that way, so we continued to the west, toward Newburyport and the setting sun. As I was on the back deck talking with some local passengers, the boat slowed down yet again! Another fin whale surfaced! This made for the 4th fin whale of the trip! Now we were really running late but wanted to see who this was, especially since on our approach, we saw it lunge-feeding at the surface, creating quite a ruckus! Of course, once we got near it, it stopped its feeding display, but hopefully a few of you were able to see the big splash it created. I haven't had time to positively ID this whale, but I know it is familar and is in our catalog. It has a small scar/dent on the front of its dorsal fin. I'll update as soon as I know for sure who this one is! Stay tuned!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of our inquisitive guests who came along today. Your questions about sleeping and diving were very thoughtful. I always enjoy meeting new people and am always curious to know where you all are from and if you have seen whales in other places. Today we had visitors from Holland as well as a whale watcher who has watched whales in Baja, Mexico with a company I used to work for ! If anyone has further questions, please comment here and I'll be sure to respond. Thanks!

Close to Shore!

Today on the Prince of Whales, we were treated to lots of whales and birds close to shore! Typically we have to travel over 20 miles to find whales, but today was different. Within about an hour of leaving the dock, we were watching the humpback whale, Solas, and saw 2 fin whales in the background to the north! As we were watching Solas, an 8-year-old whale, we got a report from a fishing boat of another whale just a few miles away! We headed east and came across another humpback whale that was bubble feeding! When this whale fluked, I didn't recognize the pattern at all! But after consulting our on-board catalog, I learned this was Tigris!! Tigris is a 25-year-old male humpback whale who typically feeds in the Bay of Fundy, off Nova Scotia! Tigris delighted us by blowing lots of bright green patches of bubbles and surfacing (once with his mouth wide open!) close to the bubbles! As the wind picked up and the rain came, Tigris continued his feeding as we followed him for a bit. On our way back home, we returned to the 2 fin whales to get some closer looks at them. These 2 fin whales were traveling side by side, surfacing within seconds of each other! Fin whales are my favorite, since so little is known about them, so any opportunity to see these huge animals near the Ledge is a great day in my book!!
Thanks to all of our hearty passengers who braved the windy conditions and choppy ride home to have a chance to visit the home of these awesome animals!! Happy 4th of July!

First Sightings of the Season

Well it is still foggy out on Jeffrey's Ledge but nature provided us with a bit of a surprise today. We have continued to have hardy passengers whom have not been afraid of getting a little wet and cool and were lucky enough to find some Minke whales today on our trips. We were also treated to our first bird sightings of not only a Corey's Shearwater, but a Puffin as well! And yes we were in the state of New Hampshire :)

Crew Members Help the Marine Environment, Too

I don't have any whale sightings to report today, because we haven't been out since Saturday. And then, it was too foggy to see anything, unfortunately. But wanted to share this picture with you of two of the Atlantic Queen's crew members, Billy and Todd, helping with our monofilament fishing line recycling program! The Atlantic Queen has a fishing trip each morning, so they go through a lot of monofilament. Our naturalist Patty Adell took this photo after the crew had grabbed some old line and were on their way up to our monofilament recycling bin at the top of the boat launch in Rye Harbor.

Do you have some old fishing line lying around? Don't throw it in the trash or in the water, recycle it! It takes monofilament about 600 years to break down, and when it's in the water, it can entangle whales and other marine life. Last year, several humpbacks were entangled just by monofilament.

To address this problem, we've installed several monofilament bins around the seacoast, including at Hampton Harbor, Rye Harbor, Wentworth Marina, Peirce Island in Portsmouth, and Great Bay Marine. You can also drop off your fishing line at our office, like one gentleman did recently. If you have any questions, you can email me at jen@blueoceansociety.org or call (603) 431-0260. Thanks!

What a weekend...

Jeffrey's Ledge is continuing to surprise me everyday. The last couple of days were no exception. We headed to southern Jeffrey's on Friday afternoon in hopes of finding whales that were reported to us earlier in the day. Our passengers seemed a little doubtful of seeing whales at first, but when we arrived to the reported area, about 24 miles from Rye, their patience payed off. We found 3 Humpback whales, a Fin whale, and a Minke whale all feeding within a short distance of each other. It was also by far, the most bird activity we have seen in quite some time. We spent the majority of our time with two feeding Humpback whales, Owl and Sedge. When Sedge was full from one area, he took off about a mile south, and left Owl to finish her afternoon meal. These photos are of her coming up through a bubble cloud and lunging on her side to feed.

We returned to the dock excited and anticipated what would follow the next day. Saturday, the weather on land was sunny and warm, but offshore on Jeffrey's, we met lots of fog and our visibility was down to just about a boat length. We were able to find a very nice Minke whale and had some great birds as well, including a Fulmar that seemed very curious about who we were. Our trips on Sunday were cancelled due to rough seas and we hope to be back out later today. From one extreme to another, New England weather always keeps us on our toes. I'm anxious to get back to Jeffrey's to see who may be out there. Hope you will join us.

Yesterdays Atlantic Queen Whale Watch!

Yesterday was by far the most amazing day of whale watching that I have had as an Intern for the Blue Ocean Society! Almost immediately after reaching Jeffrey's Ledge, we sighted two Humpbacks by the names Owl and Sedge. They stayed very close to our boat, surfacing continuously for almost forty minutes while we got a first-hand look at the whales bubble-feeding. We saw at least five other whales as well, and managed to sight Minke whales, Fin Whales and another Humpback who we did not get a close enough look at to determine which whale it was. All in all, it was an absolutely spectacular afternoon and I am still showing my pictures to people I know!

Bubbles!

Yesterday on the Prince of Whales, our trip started a little slow. We found a very nice minke whale on the edge of Jeffreys Ledge, and then searched and searched and searched for more life. We noticed a greater shearwater flying along side us. Then a second shearwater appeared. Suddenly we were surrounded by greater and sooty shearwaters, storm petrels, gulls, fulmars and....two humpback whales! These whales, Sedge and Owl, were bubble feeding- blowing huge columns of bubbles to help trap the fish and krill that they were eating! The bright green patches of bubbles showed us exactly where to look for the whale! Owl and Sedge surfaced right in the middle of the clouds almost every time! This was the best whale watch trip of the season so far! Sedge even surfaced belly-up one time and showed us his huge white flipper! Willy and Pam from PA were onboard with us and I was thrilled the whales decided to visit!