Rain or shine, the whales don't mind...

The day started out sunny and warm as we awaited to go out for our morning whale watch aboard the Granite State. We started in an area a little inshore of Jeffrey's Ledge with lots of Fin whales. In fact, there were so many whales around, we couldn't look at all of them. A pair that was spending a lot of time at the surface peeked our interest. As we were watching them, a third single whale surfaced right in front of our bow and passed from one side to the next. This whale has a very unique dorsal fin and has some propeller scars along it's back. The dorsal fin of a Fin whale is one feature we use to tell these whales apart from each other. I'm looking forward to finding out who this whale is!

After spending time with our Fin whale friends, we decided to do more exploring to see what other whales we could find. We ended up only travelling a short distance before finding several Humpbacks in the area as well. Two of which, caught our attention with spectacular surface feeding. One was identified as Raccoon, and the other has yet to be identified. These two whales would work together corralling food, and Raccoon would almost breach while feeding. Take a look as to how high this whale would rise above the surface.

We were not able to identify all the whales out there this morning, but some included: Tigris, Raccoon, and Mudskipper. With so many whales around, we were anxious for the afternoon...However, lots of rain was heading our way.

As we returned from our morning adventure, it was pouring in Rye. We awaited to see if any hearty passengers would join us in our quest to find more whales...and they did. We left the dock with blankets of rain coming down, but had confidence with so many whales around, that finding whales would not be a difficult task. We found a total of 6 Fin whales and 4 Humpback whales. The Fin whales were a little more elusive than in the morning, but they may have been travelling to a different area for food. We spent the majority of our afternoon with two of the 4 Humpbacks around that continued to kick feed and create bubble nets. But, to our surprise, it was not Raccoon and friend. As one of them raised their tail above the surface to go on a deeper dive, I quickly took the photo. To my surprise, it was a whale named Trident. Trident is an adult female and one that I haven't seen on Jeffrey's for at least 4 years. I was just mentioning the other day, that with all these old friends returning to the Ledge, that she was one of the whales I really wanted to see. The Irony! Here she is photographed below.

The other whale with Trident has yet to be identified, but was very active along the surface. It proved to be an interesting afternoon where the rain cleared out when we were watching all the whales in the area. As we headed for home, the rain started once again then cleared up right before getting to the dock.

I would like to thank all our passengers who joined us today. The kids from Wolfeboro are always a pleasure to have on board, and our hearty passengers from the afternoon proved that you do not need sunny skies to see great whales.


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