June 15 on the Granite State

Jeffreys Ledge was certainly busy with activity today. Our morning whale watch started out with some fantastic looks at a Minke whale which surfaced close to the boat quite a few times. With such close encounters we managed to see the "mittens" of our Minke whale, something often gone unseen with a species notorious for scooting around in random patterns. These great looks only got us more excited to continue towards the Ledge to see what other sights we might come upon.

It wasn't long before we came across our next ocean dwelling animal which was a Fin whale. This whale gave our school kids some incredible looks at the second largest animal in the world when a few surfacings went right alongside the boat! Perhaps the most unexpected part was when this whale pooped(!) during a surfacing for all the kids to see. Below, our Fin whale before it left its mark on the surface of the water.




Whale defecation is a GREAT indication of lots of food in the water. This whale had brown defecation meaning this whale had been eating lots of herring! Lots of fish equals a very productive Ledge and hopes of other whales coming to the area to feed on this food. With some more time to explore we left this Fin whale to check out some other hot spots on Jeffreys. Soon again we saw a blow from a whale; another Fin whale! This animal was surfacing in very large circular patterns but was holding its breath for quite sometime in between surfacings. These animals can easily hold their breath for very long periods of time (well over an hour if they chose too!) and with time running out we got some last looks and headed back to Rye Harbor to pick up passengers for our afternoon excursion.


With such great looks at whales in the morning, it only made sense to head back out to the same area to see if our whales had stuck around for the afternoon. Not only did we find whales, we found more! More Fin whales had moved into the area and were actively feeding!! Our first sighting was a massive swarm of gulls and whales combined. 2 Fin whales were lunge feeding while the seagulls were going after any scraps they could find. But that wasn't the only thing to look at. Relatively close by we were seeing more exhalations. We had at least 5 Fin whales in the area! Two of our 5 Fin whales moving through the water together.



The problem turned out to be all these whales were circling around so much, charging through the water, it was a bit challenging depicted which whale was which! Then again, any day we have multiple whales surrounding the boat, is a good day in my books!

In all the surfacings around us we realized we had a few different species in the area. A Minke whale suddenly appeared close to the boat allowing for an incredible size comparison between the 2nd smallest and the 2nd largest baleen whales in the world! We also had a Humpback whale in our midst. This animal after identifying it back on land turned out to be a yearling. This whale is the 2009 calf of Anvil.




The birds were flying, the whales were feeding, and the food seemed to be plentiful today. Can't wait to see what we find out there on Jeffreys Ledge tomorrow!

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