Sunday's whale watch on the Prince of Whales in Newburyport was a bit of an exploration adventure. We had heard from our friends on fishing boats that the whales we found on Friday had moved on, and that other fishing boats had seen blows on the southern part of the Ledge early in the day. So we left the Merrimack River and pointed the bow south-east, towards southern Jeffreys Ledge, off Cape Ann, MA.
Our first stop was on a pair of minke whales. One was a bit shy but the other cooperated quite well. The minke surfaced many times near the boat, piercing the calm surface water with its pointed "nose" and barely making a ripple as it took a breath.
After continuing to the southeast and not finding much marine life, we turned to head up the eastern edge of the ledge in a northeast direction. An observant passenger on the upper deck spotted a whale spouting not too far away. This was a fin whale! We tried to get some looks to see who the fin whale was but this animal had other things on its mind! We managed to get a quick look at the back and dorsal fin before the whale went down for a dive.
As we kept searching along the ledge, minke whales were popping up seemingly all over! A total of 6 minkes were seen throughout the trek. Finally, we spotted a second fin whale. This one was more laid back and seemed to be traveling just below the surface and not diving deeply. The tall fin of this whale is distinctive although as of right now, we still haven't been able to positively match it to any whale in our catalog. We will keep looking and let you all know if and when we do find out who it was!
Thanks to all of our explorers yesterday for your thoughtful questions and enthusiasm!
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