August 3 Atlantic Queen

Absolutely incredible day out at Jeffreys Ledge. We were all getting a little nervous when 3:00 rolled around and we hadn’t seen a whale yet. But good things come to those who wait. In the distance we saw a spout from a fin whale, and as we made our way over to this whale we saw another spout and then another! Turns out there were four fin whales in this area all swimming along one another.

In the distance we saw a few more spouts and decided to check out a new group of whales so as to not overstay our welcome with the first group. In the second group we found 3 more fin whales! Fin whales are a type of baleen whale and are typically solitary animals. There must have been lots of food in this area!

Some of the looks that we got from these whales were even surprising to us!

After these whales went down for deeper dives we decided to explore some of the ledge closer to home. On the way we were surrounded by more fin whale spouts, but decided to press on in hopes of finding some new species. In the distance we saw quite a bit of splashing and decided to investigate. And boy am I glad we did!

At first we thought it might be a breaching whale, but quickly the splashing stopped and we didn’t see any spouts from the presumed humpback whale that was there. Then we started seeing dorsal fins peaking out over the surface of the water. Strange…they didn’t look like Atlantic white sided dolphins. Sharks maybe? But lots of them? It turns out they were Risso’s dolphins!

I can’t even begin to explain how excited I was to see these little guys! It was such a surprise and a rare event for us out on Jeffreys Ledge. Risso’s dolphins are a type of toothed whale (odontocete) that can reach lengths of 10 feet long and weigh upwards of 600-1,000 pounds! Typically Risso’s spend their time out further near the continental shelf and don’t make their way closer to shore. Absolutely amazing day! One of our interns, Alicia, said it was like watching the US team win Olympic gold! Can’t argue with that!

Overall we had 12 fin whales and a small pod (approximately 5) Risso’s dolphins! Not to show our geeky side too much, but that is a total of 1.4 million pounds of whale! Thank you to everyone who joined us out on the water today! I hope you enjoyed the trip as much as I did. Hope to see you soon!

Keep in touch!Become a Fan on Facebook || Follow Us On Twitter