Surprise, Surprise...

The last few days aboard the Granite State have left us on our toes. After rough sea conditions kept us on the dock on Friday, we went out Saturday, not really knowing what to expect. Sometimes when storm surges move through, the food supply gets shifted around and therefore the whales follow. We were surprised to find a very nice pod of toothed whales, Atlantic white sided dolphins. This group of dolphins really seemed interested in us, bow riding and looking up at our passengers. Here's a photo from one of passengers, Mandy Houston. She is an amazing photographer and a dear friend to the Granite State crew.

We were also fortunate enough to find an adult humpback whale as well as several minke whales throughout the trip. We have not indentified that Humpback just yet, but if we do soon, I will keep you all posted.

The afternoon started similarly with a pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins. We then spent time with an adult fin whale that swam right next to the boat. After spending some time with the Fin whale, we travelled closer to Jeffrey's Ledge, where we found 3 Humpback whales, Flask, Chromosome, and Tripod. They were all bubble feeding at the surface, but not all together. Flask was enjoying a mid-afternoon snack by himself, while the dynamic duo helped each other out. Here are some of my favorite photos of that afternoon.

Even though the number of whales were down, we were very happy to see such great feeding behavior from all the whale we saw that day.

Sunday was a little different out on the Ledge. Lots of fog rolled in and finding whales was proving to be a difficult task. Our hearty passengers didn't seem to mind, even when the wind decided to pick up and made our ride a bumpy and wet one. We were able to find a Fin whale, but it had lots of travelling on it's mind. It took a deeper dive for over 20 minutes and we were unable to relocate it. The sea conditions were rapidly declining, so we didn't venture out in the afternoon. We decided to try our luck again on Monday...

I'm sure glad we did. The day today started out quite foggy once again and that made me a little nervous as we left the harbor. We travelled for quite awhile, but then were pleasantly surprised by some dolphins charging at the surface. We were able to spend quite a bit of time with them, before they moved beyond the fog and we lost track of them. As we approached the Ledge, the fog started to clear and the sun was making an appearance. We found several different Minke whales as the fog lifted and then located a spout from a larger whale. As we approached the area one whale turned into 2, then 3 in an area. We followed two of the whales briefly. As one of them raised their tail abbove the surface, I put my camera up real quick and snapped a photo. To my surprise, it was a Humpback named Fan! We have been following Fan for about 20 years, but she has yet to be seen on the Ledge this year...that was until today! I was very excited to share the news with our passengers and as I did, a fishing vessel called us and told us of more whales in the area. We had very little time, but wanted to see who may be in the area. We found 5 more Humpback whales, including Solas, Valley, Filament, Milyway, and an unknown whale. It was the very first time I had seen Milkyway, and she hasn't been seen on Jeffrey's Ledge for several years. It was really nice to see some old friends again for the very first time this season.

With the fog lifted, we were anxious to get back out to the Ledge this afternoon. We started with an adult Fin whale that surfaced next to us and gave us great looks before travelling in search of more food. We also decided to continue travelling and as we approached the area we had been in the morning, it turned into a whale bonanza. There were 5 Fin whales and over 10 Humpbacks within a 5 mile radius and wherever you looked, spouts filled the air. Solas and Filament were busy kick-feeding, where the whales will raise their tail high above the surface and slap it down to help stun food. They would then create bubble clouds almost immediately and feed along the surface. We also found Valley travelling with an unidentified whale. Later in the afternoon, we decided to try and find whales in the area that we had yet to see and in doing so we located Tigris and another old friend we haven't seen for quite some time, a Humpback named Freckles. It was quite a surprising end to a day that started with thick fog. With more friendly faces returning to the Ledge, I'm looking forward to what this week may bring.
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