Blue Ocean Society's Whale Sightings

Greetings! Thanks for visiting our blog. Our staff and interns will be posting their experiences here working on whale watch boats in NH and MA.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Atlantic Queen October 5, 2013

A chilly fall day out on the water yesterday, but the crew and passengers braved the chill in the air in search of some wildlife out at Jeffreys Ledge. We had a few visitors who were experiencing their first whale watches ever, and I certainly think the whales delivered! We started our trip with a few minke whale and harbor porpoise sightings. Unfortunately they were all moving quite fast, and we wanted to make our way out to Jeffreys Ledge so we decided to press on. Once we made it out to the ledge, we came across two humpback whales, Echo and Cacophony.

Echo is a female humpback who was born in 1990, making her 23 years old! You can see how she gets her name by the 'echo' lines on her left fluke.


Cacophony was also with Echo, and was first sighted back in 1988. We are not sure if Cacophony is a male or female, although has not been seen with a calf since their first sighting in the late eighties. Cacophony gets its name from the noise marks on its fluke.


We had some activity from these two whales, like flipper slapping and a few roles from Cacophony. Everyone on board was surprised, including the crew. But the surprises didn't end there. We decided to leave this pair behind and investigate more of the ledge. Eventually we came across a fin whale, we believe to be 9618. Notice the large notch in the dorsal fin.

This whale was very active, and very unpredictable as it kept changing directions and catching both the crew and passengers off guard. It seemed to be feeding, and would filter water out of its baleen plates as it reached the surface.

What a wonderful day! Thank you to everyone who joined us. We hope to see you next season.

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