I love my Job...

The whales have treated us kindly aboard the Granite State. This is going to be a long update because the last several days on the Ledge have been spectacular. I promised some favorite photos from Monday’s trips so here they are. In the morning we had Humpbacks including Cygnus, Tornado, Milkyway, and Quote. We were also treated to a nice trio of Fin whales.

We saw lots of whales in the afternoon as well, but had different individuals, including
I-vee, Trident, and Mudskipper. Mudskipper breached in the distance, which gave our passengers quite a surprise.

On Tuesday we had more whales than we could actually visit with, but were able to spend time with quite a few friends. In the morning we were able to identify lots of Humpback whales and Fin whales in the area. Humpbacks included Cygnus, Tornado, Tripod, Chromosome, Diablo, Quote, and Compass. Compass is a female that was seen on the Ledge for the first time this season. Our fin whales included Fjord, one of our adopt-a whale’s, and Dingle.

In the afternoon, the whales were more spread out, and we saw different individuals than the morning. Our Humpbacks included Diablo, Skua, Filament, and Satula. Satula is also one of our adopt-a-whales and hasn’t been seen that often this season. It was a nice surprise and a great way to finish the day. We saw a few fin whales that afternoon as well, including a nice pair that stayed with us for quite some time.

Wednesday was a great day to be aboard the Granite State, due to the humidity on land.
Our Humpback friends in the morning included Sword, Scylla, Tigris, Glostick, Valley, I-vee, Diablo, Chromosome, and Tripod. We were not able to ID any of our Fin whales from the morning, but are hoping to soon. The food supply on Jeffrey’s is still plentiful.

We saw several of the same whales from the morning, but the unique finding was that the associations were different. Sword and Scylla were together in the morning, but Scylla fed by herself in the afternoon, where Sword and Glostick helped each other feed in the afternoon. Valley and Diablo were also in the area, quite tired from their morning of feeding. Seen below, are all the fish trying to escape from the large appetite of the Humpback whales. We are supposed to have nice weather over the next several days and with more whales returning to the Ledge, I hope you will join us.





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Wednesday's Atlantic Queen Trip

Great trip on the Atlantic Queen today, with a total of 5 humpbacks and 7 fin whales. Whales everywhere, once we got out to the Ledge! Will add more later, but here are a few photos:

Whale poop!

Dramatic bubble-feeding that occurred near the boat's pulpit (while we were drifting with engines off):

The two humpbacks above were Glostick, a whale born in 1997, and Sword, a male born in 1984. We haven't identified the others yet!

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Tuesday on the Prince of Whales

Beautiful weather and whales today! We began our adventure by finding Mudskipper, a humpback whale who is infamous for not lifting his tail. To my surprise, today he lifted his tail several times! I guess he didn't like the stereotype we had given him! He was also logging- his version of resting!

Mudskipper's blow

Dorsal fin of an unidentified humpback whale

We left Mudskipper and saw a couple more humpbacks, but neither were showing their flukes very well so we still have a little more work to do to figure out who those two were.

The major highlight for me for this trip was the finback whale who was moving slowly just below the surface. This still unknown whale was relaxed and possible sleeping too! With the excellent lighting and surface conditions, we were able to look right into the water (especially if you had polarized sunglasses) and see the entire whale below the surface. The white lower jaw was glowing as we watched the fluke move up and down, just barely touching the surface! We accompanied this whale for several minutes before it decided to wake up and pick up speed. We kept up for a little bit- going about 15 mph- before it went down for a deep dive.

Finback whale just below the surface

Finback whale blow

Finback whale dorsal fin

After leaving this cool whale, we came into an area with several whales- a single traveling humpback, a pair of humbacks and another finback whale! We were running out of time but managed to get a couple looks at the pair. One of these was Sword- a male humpback whale. The other is still yet to be identified.

Sword, the humpback whale

Thanks to all of our enthusiastic passengers who had extremely thoughtful and intersting questions today!


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Weekend in Review

Saturday was a great day to spend on the water aboard the Granite State. We started inshore of Jeffrey’s Ledge with several Fin whales, including #0354 and “Crow.” It was the first time we have seen Crow this season and the crew was excited to have that whale back in the area.

Once we reached the Ledge, the bird activity lead us to more whales. Thousands of shearwaters covered the ocean. We spent time with more Fin whales and found 5 Humpback whales as well, including Scylla, Cygnus, and Dice. Cygnus and Dice are new Humpbacks to the area and the food supply proved to be the reason why. The whales took us a little further offshore than anticipated, but we had a little more time to spend and our passengers were treated to some spectacular surface feeding, as all 3 fed along the surface simultaneously. Scylla was quite the hungry Humpback! Here she is photographed below. Other highlights included our bird watchers finding a long-tailed jaeger. What an afternoon!!


Sunday morning was more of the same with lots of whales in the area and more new arrivals for the season. Leukos and Ivee are older whales and haven’t been seen feeding on Jeffrey’s Ledge for quite some time. Here, Leukos is tail breaching. A very exciting sight for our passengers.

As we headed out for our afternoon trip, the wind picked up speed and rocky seas made for a bumpy ride offshore, but with reported whale activity not too far away, we continued on. Unfortunately, when we arrived where the whales were, the fog joined us. The thick fog really inhibited our ability to locate whales, but I hope our hearty passengers will join us again soon to enjoy these fascinating animals.

Today (Monday), was a great day on the water…what a difference a few hours make. We had some nice whale activity during both trips. Some highlights include flipper slapping from a Humpback named Cygnus, and a trio of Fin whales that surfaced right next to the boat. I hope to post more photos soon. Thanks to all our passengers who joined us.


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Monday on the Prince of Whales

What an awesome day today! You folks certainly know how to pick your day! The sky was clear and the seas were glassy calm- we could look right into the water and see the whole bodies of all the whales we found! At one point, we could even see the whale's eye!

Our first amazing sighting was of a mother finback whale and her new calf! The calf was very cute, poking its snout out a little more than necessary! We got great looks at that white lower jaw, and even saw the pair nursing, evidenced by the milk in the water near the mother!

Finback whale calf

As we continued on, we found Tornado, a 21 year old female humpback whale who was hanging out with Cygnus (also named Sabre), a male who is at least 29 years old! These two humpbacks were flipper slapping together for a good amount of time before they then decided to take a nap!

Tornado's flipper

Humpback whale flippers

Tornado's fluke

Cygnus' dorsal fin, Tornado's fluke

Cygnus' fluke

In the distance, we noticed another humpback whale who was breaching- jumping out of the water! Of course, once we got in the area, it stopped and was also napping, but we still got some great looks at it! Turns out this was Glostick, a humpback whale that was seen last week!

We also saw tons of great birds including greater and sooty shearwaters and northern gannets diving to catch the fish that the whales missed!

Sooty shearwaters taking off

Northern gannet taking off

Check out those barnacles on the humpback whale's tail!

Thanks for visiting the whales with us today!


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Fog and Fin Whales

Fin whale - you can just barely see its white lower jaw

We headed out in choppy seas today, which made for a fun ride for some (and a not-so-fun ride for others!). Once we got onto the Ledge, we were lucky enough to find ourselves pretty much surrounded by blows. During the course of the trip, we saw 3 fin whale pairs, and got amazing looks at all of them. This seemed extra special later on. We had been following our last fin whale pair for awhile and thankfully they were moving slowly, as the fog started rolling in. By the time we turned for home, visibility was less than a mile! We were so fortunate to get the looks we did!

The M/V Prince of Whales nearby in the fog

Thanks to all who joined us on this trip. I hope you could enjoy it, despite the choppy seas!

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Familiar Fin Whales and More

Fin whale close encounter

We had a great day today aboard the Atlantic Queen! We started out the day with looks at 2 fin whales (with at least a couple more in the distance). As they came closer, I was excited to realize they were two whales I recognized, and haven't seen yet this year! They were whales known as "Crow" and #0354. Crow was first seen by us in 1998, but Allied Whale, the curators of the North Atlantic Fin Whale Catalog, have records of this whale dating back to 1987! #0354 is a more recent visitor, at least to us - it was first identified in 2003. Both whales are huge, and have very distinctive dorsal fins.

At one point, Crow and #0354 turned quickly and these huge whales swam toward our pulpit and then right along our port side - a close view of a fin whale is a sight that never fails to take my breath away!

#0354

Crow

We also had a comparatively little minke whale cruising around. We haven't seen many minkes lately, even though they are a plentiful species - and it was neat to compare its size to that of the giant fin whales.

We finished up the trip with two of our favorite whales this season, Chromosome and Tripod, who seem to have an on-again, off-again relationship. This male and female have been together off and on for several weeks now. We just saw Tripod with Valley on Wednesday, and thought maybe her time with Chromosome was over, but today they were back together again, engaging in spectacular bubble feeding!

Tripod and Chromosome. One whale in a vertical lunge, one in a horizontal lunge!

Humpback whale fluke

Tripod

Tripod (front), Chromosome (back)

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