August 12- Prince of Whales

16 whales and a pod of dolphins today!! And we got reports from other boats in the distance of more whales by them! Lots of birds too!

A minke whale surfaced not far from shore. We followed this whale for a bit and then continued east.

Minke

Soon a blow caught our eye. This whale still hasn't been identified but could be #0635, a whale first ID'ed in 2006. As we were with this whale, we saw splashing in the distance and decided to motor over there. We found the splashing to be from a small group of Atlantic white sided dolphins! One of these dolphins had a recent injury on its back and side. I'm not sure what caused the injury but it seemed to be doing ok and was keeping up with the pod.

Two Atlantic white sided dolphins, one with a fresh injury

Then a fin whale was seen nearby and heading our way. Not long later, the dolphins rushed over to the fin whale and began to move with the huge whale. The dolphins and the fin whale were here for the same reason- food!

Fin whale filtering water from its mouth

This whale is #0926, a whale first seen just a couple years ago.

fin whale #0926

fin whale and dolphin surfacing together

We left #0926 and the dolphins and found more blows ahead. We stopped on one- a fin whale, that appeared to be feeding. As we looked down, we could see part of what the feeding was all about- krill!

Krill!

Fish were feeding on the krill, and the fin whale was eating both!

Lunging fin whale- pleats on the underside are facing us

This whale was #0543, a whale first see in in 2005 and likely not seen since 2005!

Leaving this hungry whale, we started to head for home but were quickly side tracked by a pair of fin whales! Our good friend Ladder and his buddy graced us. We at Blue Ocean Society have been tracking Ladder since our formative years- back in 1996, but his sighting history dates back to 1984!

Ladder

As we started to head for home, again, we saw another blow. This was an unusual visitor- a sei whale! We have been seeing sei whales a bit but they are still normally further offshore or seen later in the season.

Sei whale!

Leaving for home again, we were yet again side tracked by another pair of fin whales! We didn't have time to spend with these two but look at how close to the Isles of Shoals they were! You can see Star and Appledore Islands in the distance!
Absolutely beautiful day on the water! Thanks to all who joined us today!


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