In spite of a few sprinkles as we were boarding, we ended up with a very nice pelagic bird and whale watch. We left the Merrimack River and passed by several harbor seals on the way. Near the ledge, we slowed down for a tuna fleet and found a shy minke whale, and a fin whale on a mission. We didn't spend much time with these less-than-cooperative whales and instead, continued on. We got to the area where whales had been seen just yesterday but it seems the whale decided to move on. Soon we got a call from some other whale seekers in the area and headed down to check out the fin whales they had found.
To our surprise, we found Dingle hanging out with a yet-to-be-ID'ed whale along with a pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins! We got some amazing looks at these huge whales while the dolphins were playing around near them.
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Dingle, the fin whale |
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Dingle's unique markings |
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Dingle with dolphins |
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Dingle's head with dolphins off his nose! |
At one point, Dingle seemed to be annoyed with the dolphins and rolled over in a big splash, showing us his flukes and flipper!
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Dingle's flipper |
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Part of Dingle's fluke as he rolled at the surface |
Then a 3rd fin whale showed up- this on has been identified as #9619, a whale first seen by Blue Ocean staff in 1996 and has only otherwise been seen in 2009!
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Fin whale #9619 |
During the trip, when the first whale swam directly at the boat, I mentioned that the whale certainly knew we were there as they have excellent hearing abilities. A passenger asked me what the whales were listening for. I mentioned that in addition to listening for ships and other whales (whose sounds can travel over 1000 miles underwater), they were also listening for the sounds of fish- herring in particular. Our curious passenger seemed surprised that herring make noise, so I just had to tell her of an article I had read about the sounds of herring- they "fart" to communicate and the whales can hear it! Check out this link if you have time and want to learn about the intricacies of fish talk!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1110_031110_herringfarts.html
The pelagic birds were a bit sparse today but we did get many looks at northern gannets! Also we saw 2 common loons, a great shearwater, a juvenile laughing gull and a surprising look at a whimbrel!
Additionally, 2 eagles were spotted along the shore as we headed up river along with several more harbor seals.
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Pile of harbor seals! |
Great day on the water and thanks again for joining us!
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