July 20- Prince of Whales- Newburyport

Five species of marine mammals today!! Minkes, a fin whale, a pair of humpbacks, a pod of white sided dolphins and even a handful of harbor porpoises!! What a day of variety! Don't forget the tuna crashing around all over, and the plethora of shearwaters, mature gannets and storm petrels!

Minkes greeted us near shore, thanks to some sharp-eyed passengers who spotted a couple of them for us. Next, another passenger pointed out a blow fairly close to us. This turned out to be a huge fin whale! This whale is #0520, seen every year on Jeffreys Ledge since 2005, expect for last summer. Although we were happy to find this whale, the area it was in could be very dangerous for it. Many buoys, marking fishing gear on the ocean floor, were seen on the surface. Entanglements in fishing gear is a primary threat to all whales. We watched, holding our breath, as this whale swam precariously close to one of these buoys.

Fin whale #0520

Since #0520 was diving for 14 minutes, and we were still fairly close to shore, we continued on and found a nice pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins- about 50 of them- cruising around. Dolphins seem to be quite plentiful this year since we typically only see them on 20% of our trips!

Atlantic white sided dolphins

Then a bit further out, we got a call from whale watch boats Starfish and Atlantic Queen II informing us of our buddies Diablo and calf (humpback whales) in the area again!

Humpbacks Diablo and her 2010 calf!

As we headed for the barn, so to speak, we passed by a couple more minke whales and a small group of harbor porpoises! These small toothed-whales are typically shy and don't like boats as much as the white sided dolphins seem to, so we maintained our course and got a few looks in passing.

Hope you all had a great day!


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