Thursday, June 21, 2012

June 21 Prince of Whales, Newburyport

Today was a great day to escape the heat of Newburyport! We headed to Jeffreys Ledge in search of whales and cooler temps. Thanks to the Granite State, we heard of a report of a humpback whale not too far from us. We slowed down to approach it and a minke whale popped up! After a couple looks at this whale, we continued on to the humpback. After a distant look at the flukes, we easily identified this whale as Halfmoon, one of the older whales known to frequent this area!

Here comes Halfmoon!

Halfmoon fluking- check out his barnacles!
Halfmoon


Halfmoon was busy feeding- blowing big clouds of bubbles to catch his lunch. We even got to see him poop many times- exciting, I know! Who gets to tell their friends they saw a whale poop??

Soon it was time to go, but we found our good friend, Fjord, the fin whale, on the way home.  Fjord was moving around a bit but finally surfaced very close to us, giving us all a great look at his chevron markings and uniquely notched dorsal fin!

Fjord coming up for a breath
Fjord's distinct dorsal fin


As we headed for home, the temperature was rising and back on land, the heat was oppressive. I wish we could spend the night on the cooler ocean! Congrats to our winner of the daily raffle- Megan! Enjoy your adopted whale!

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