August 24, Atlantic Queen

It was a beautiful day out on the water, and we didn't have to go far to see some amazing animals out in the Gulf of Maine. Our first animal we came upon was a minke whale. This minke whale was spending a lot of time under the surface, but luckily there was a pod of dolphins a few hundred feet away.

 While we were looking at the dolphins there was a fin whale in the area, who seemed to be swimming with the dolphins. Anytime we were waiting for the fin whale to resurface you could look for the dolphins, and sure enough the fin whale wouldn't be far behind. It's always so nice to see this much activity just off the coast of New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 

We started noticing that there were more and more boats coming into the area. We never like to overstay our welcome with these animals, and don't want to overcrowd them. So we decided to move a little further off shore. Once we did we came across another minke whale. This one has a large scar just before its dorsal fin. This minke has been seen quite a bit over the last few months out at Jeffreys Ledge.

While we were waiting for the minke whale to resurface we spotted an ocean sunfish or mola mola. Mola mola are the largest boney fish in the world!

It was then time to start heading back towards Rye Harbor, but not without a quick stop to try and find our fin whale again. We were unable to locate the fin whale, but found another pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! This was a very active group and gave passengers a great show! We also saw a small pod of harbor porpoise, and a harbor seal!

Overall it was a wonderful day of activity! Thank you to Laura Stevens for being my volunteer intern for the afternoon. I couldn't have done it with out you.

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