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| Fin whale head |
What a terrific day!
We were surprised by our first sighting - a rare North Atlantic right whale - a species that numbers around 450 animals. Then we moved on to what seemed to be a fin whale party! We saw a total of 7 fin whales in the area.
What was a most exciting about the fin whales was a trio of fin whales who consistently surfaced together - often right next to each other. And they are all whales we've seen before. This trio included Ladder, one of our favorite whales (and an adoptable whale), and two whales we first saw in 2006.
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| Ladder, showing his distinctive ladder-like scar and the small notch in his dorsal fin. We've been seeing Ladder since 1996, but he was originally sighted first in 1984 on Stellwagen Bank |
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| #0622, who has a notch in the middle of the dorsal fin |
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| #0635 - it's hard to see here, but this whale has a large notch and a 'squiggle' at the top of its dorsal fin! This whale was also seen off Mount Desert Rock in Maine in 2004 - two years before its first sighting here. |
In this same spot, there were 2 minke whales and also an unidentified shark species (which we only got a quick glimpse of, so no pictures...). There were also some gillnets in the area - a net that is strung between buoys to catch groundfish. Thankfully, the whales seemed to be feeding fairly close to the surface, since they were taking short dives, hopefully minimizing their potential to interact with the nets.
All in all, it was a great day on the ocean with some of the largest creatures on Earth!
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