New Arrivals and Old Friends

The last couple of days aboard the Granite State have been quite nice. I would like to highlight a few moments from Friday afternoon (8/7) and this morning (8/9). There was really no wind on Friday afternoon when we left the dock and it was a warm one. We ended up seeing a total of 9 Fin whales, 6 Humpbacks, and 2 Minke whales. I’m still working on trying to ID the Fin whales, but the Humpback sightings were surprising to us. None of the Humpbacks that we saw in the afternoon were ones that were seen during the morning and we had a couple of surprise visitors. Our highlight of the afternoon was finding a trio of Humpback whales feeding on herring along the surface. All 3 whales would surface together with their mouths wide open and then roll over to help push food to their stomachs. Quote, an adult female, was one of them and we were happy to have her back in the area. Then, to our surprise, the other whales with Quote, were Trowel and Newton!! Trowel and Newton haven’t been seen on the Ledge this year until that afternoon and Newton is one Captain Pete’s favorite whales. Here are a couple of favorite photos from Friday afternoon.

We had a nice crowd aboard the Granite State this morning and headed out to Jeffrey’s Ledge wondering who we would find. We saw a total of 6 Humpbacks, 5 Minke’s, 18 Fin whales, and 50 or more dolphins! Highlights for me were watching our first pair on Fin whales and finishing our trip with dolphins. As our first pair of Fin whales were lunge feeding along the surface, one of them would completely roll over after feeding and then circle in the opposite direction to corral food. One would roll to the right and the other to the left. It was a unique sight and they repeated this behavior for about a half hour. In the photos below, the first Fin whale’s head is above the surface and the second whale is upside down.

We saw several different Fin whales throughout the trip that treated us to some nice close encounters. We ended our morning with lots of dolphins, a rare find this season. It was the perfect way to end our trip before heading back to Rye. I want to thank all our passengers who joined us. There really is nothing better than watching wild animals in their natural habitat.



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