Got to Love the Fog

People always seem to be a little be hesitant when we are whale watching in the fog, and today was no exception. With high seas and windy conditions this past week it was finally nice to get back out on the boat even if we couldn't see the Isles of Shoals. As we always say, you never really know what is out there until you try. And we did. Even in the fog we had some enthusiastic passengers that were super helpful in locating whales this morning. We had reports of activity in the area but with less than 100 yards of visibility in every direction we decided to "find" the whale a little bit differently. Instead of relying on our eyesight we decided to "listen" for a whale. So Captain Pete shut down the boat and everyone on board began to listen for a whale's exhalation.

When a whale comes to the surface to take a breath of air, the whale must first release all the air in it's lungs and exhales before it inhales. That exhalation cannot only rise 20ft into the air but is at a force of 300mph! (We humans sneeze at about 100mph for comparison.) So when a whale is nearby and we can't see it, there is a good chance we might hear it. . . . and we did.

It took us about three times to hear the blow before we ever even saw the whale but passengers all around the boat would immediately point in the direction they heard this exhalation. Our determination paid off! We were surprised to find a Humpback whale named Hornbill. While spending some much deserved time with this animal, low and behold, a second humpback came up to the surface! This was a whale named Owl, who was seen a bunch of times around the Ledge last year with a calf. Owl is a very distinct whale due to a scar on her back from a previous ship strike. Thankfully she was tough enough to live through the encounter as she is now 23 years old. It was very exciting to see her back on Jeffreys Ledge.

Our afternoon trip brought sunshine and less fog, though we still managed to spend some time searching in less than ideal conditions. It seemed as fast as we found the whales in the morning, they may have left the area just as quickly. To no avail we were unable to relocate our whales from the morning. We were however treated to 2 Harbor seals, 2 Harbor porpoises and 3 Bluefin Tuna. It was nice to see that the Ledge continues to be home to many different species. After more searching we came across a Minke whale that seemed to be quite concentrated in one particular area. Turns out there was a bunch of schooling fish around. The minke whale must have been having an afternoon snack.

Can't wait to see what we find out on Jeffreys this weekend. It seems yet again that fog and no visibility can't deter our hopes in finding whales!