July 22 Prince of Whales

The large whales were not behaving today! We saw 3 different fin whales but each was diving for long periods of time and coming up in random places- no rhyme or reason to them! But then we watched a pod of Atlantic white sided dolphins that made up for the willy nilly fin whales. These dolphins were busy too but with so many of them, we were able to get excellent views.

Panoramic view of racing dolphins!

Dolphins moving quickly

On our return trip, we spotted a shark. This wasn't a blue or basking shark that we are used to seeing on the ledge, but may be a porbeagle or possibly even a great white! Of course I didn't get any decent photos of it but am hoping some of our lucky passengers did so we can confirm the species! If you got a pic, email it to me directly at dianna@blueoceansociety.org!

Then relatively close to shore, we saw another spout from another fin whale but with time running out we didn't have time to watch this one closely.

Fin whale spout

Today was the perfect day to cool off on the water. Congrats to our lucky whale adoption winner, Stephen! Hope to see you back out there with us soon.


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Atlantic Queen July 22

Our first whale today was a minke just by the Isles of Shoals, we didn't spend to much time with this whale as we need to continue to our final destination.
Next came a nice pod of Atlantic White Sided Dolphin, a nursery pod, being very friendly and curious. While we were watching the dolphin a blue shark came up right next to the pulpit giving our passengers very cool looks. Our friends on The Prince of Whales let us know of a very cooperative fin whale, this whale was enormous, one of the largest I have ever seen! This whale stayed next to us for many looks, a fantastic site! It did cool down off shore, thankfully, so if you want to escape the hot humid weekend join us for a beautiful day on the water. Congratulations to Kathi and Rick who won our raffle today, a humpback whale named "Satula".

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July 21st, Granite State

There is never a dull moment when dealing with Mother Nature, and today was no different. We boarded the boat and headed out to Jeffrey's Ledge in hopes of finding cetacean activity. As we passed the Isles of Shoals (a group of 9 islands about 6 miles from Rye), the wind started to increase in speed and it made for a bumpy ride to the Ledge. The further we travelled, the more windy it became. The ocean was a bit choppy, but the whales didn't mind.

Today was all about the second largest animal in the world. We were able to find 3 adult fin whales throughout our trip and had several close encounters, despite the bumpy sea conditions. The whales continued to circle around and they were taking short dives, which made it easy for all our passengers to see just how big they really are. Here is one of our whales coming in for a closer look at the Granite State!

Thank you to all our passengers for joining us today. It was quite the ride.

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Wednesday July 20 on the Atlantic Queen

Mudskipper's calf - showing the dorsal fin and white flippers under the water

Another nice day on the ocean. Today we spent lots of time with Mudskipper and her calf. The calf was pretty adventurous today, as it has been each time I've seen this pair.  At one point, we watched Mudskipper surface several times, without seeing the calf for 9 minutes!  Another time, mom and calf got separated and Mudskipper did a surprise tail breach - soon after, they were reunited!  Was that a way for her to call Mudskipper back to her?

Mudskipper's calf cruising around the boat

The name Mudskipper might seem unusual - indeed, lots of whale names are, as scientists have to get pretty creative when we name whales based on their natural markings.  A mudskipper is an amphibious fish that walks on land with its pectoral fins (you can see a video on National Geographic here). Mudskipper has a marking on her left fluke that sort of... maybe... looks like one of those fish...

Mudskipper's left fluke, showing the "mudskipper" marking

Mudskipper's fluke

Yet another low fluke from Mudskipper!

After many great looks at Mudskipper and her calf, we moved on to some looks at a fin whale. This whale wasn't spending much time at the surface, but we did get one terrific look right near the boat before we headed home.

Fin Whale

Thanks to everyone who joined us today, and congratulations again to newlyweds Greg and Becky and Marsha, who won the adoption of Satula in our raffle!

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July 20th, Granite State

I always try to tell people that visit us aboard the boat that every trip is truely a different experience. Well, that proved to be true today. We did have fin whales and humpback whales on both trips, but we saw completely different individuals between our morning and afternoon adventures.
Our morning started out with flat calm seas and our first whale of the day turned out to be a humpback named Chickadee. This whale was born in 2006 and has been continually feeding in our area for several days. Chickadee is a pleasure to watch and loved to be close to the Granite State!

As we continued off shore, we saw two spouts in the distance and it turned out to be a pair of fin whales. As we got closer and got a good look at the whales, we quickly realized that one of them was very familiar to us...it was Ladder! Ladder is one of our adopt-a whales and he always seems to travel with other whales, and yet again, that was the case today. We have only seen Ladder one other time this season, so it was great to see him again. We are still working on identifying the whale with Ladder and will keep you posted as to who that whale may be. As we were watching these fin whales, they continued to feed in the area and made a couple of close approaches. Just look at our plankton sample from this morning. I know these aimals may be tiny, but they are very nutrient rich!

One of our passengers approached the pilot house and informed me that she had just adopted Ladder last week and couldn't believe that she was able to actually see this whale in person. It was a morning that was meant to be! Thank you Brenda for sharing your touching story and for continuing your patronage by adopting Satula today!

The afternoon sea breeze kicked up and made for bumpy ride back to Jeffrey's Ledge. We wondered if our whales from the morning would still be around. Well...we didn't see any of our whales from the morning, but we were able to spend quality time with a very large fin whale, #9904. This whale stayed close by and gave all our passengers an idea as to just how large it was.

After spening time with fin whale #9904, we heard of other cetacean activity in the area and decided to check it out. It turns out that our friends on the Prince of Whales had a mother, calf humpback pair and were going to be heading home shortly. They were getting some last looks as we approached the area and as we did, the calf breached off our right side...then mom decided to follow suit and breached as well! What a sight to see mom and calf breach one after the other. It turned out to be mudskipper and her new calf. Both the Prince of Whales and ourselves witnessed such a rare occurence and the calf continued to be quite acobatic throughout the afternoon.

I want to thank our hardy passengers for joining us for quite an adventure today!

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July 20 Prince of Whales

Perfectly calm sea conditions on this morning's whale watch! We had a fabulous group of campers from Joppa Flatts Audubon Center. We began the morning with glassy conditions- perfect for minke whale watching! We found a minke that we had seen a few days before (the one with the rounded snout). This whale repeated surfaced near us, giving us some amazing views.

Minke whale pointed nose, coming at the boat

Minke whale with rounded snout, and white "minke mittens" showing

A bit further offshore, we found our old friend, Crow, the finback whale. Crow was first seen by BOS researchers in 1998, but his sighting history goes back to 1987 when he was sighted off New York!

Finback whale named Crow

The afternoon's trip was a bit breezy as the SW wind picked up, but that didn't stop us from finding some cool whales. First, an eagle-eyed passenger on the bow spotted a fin whale for us. This turned out to be #0821! This whale was first seen in 2008 and was seen again last summer! Looks like we may have a new "regular" on the Ledge!

Fin whale #0821's beautiful chevron

Fin whale #0821's distinct dorsal fin

As we headed offshore, we got a report from the Atlantic Queen of a mother/calf pair of humpback whales not too far away. The mother was Mudskipper, a 12 year old humpback. Humpback whales, Mudskipper and calf

We watched these two for a bit, and as the Granite State came in for a peek, we turned for home. Soon after we turned, the calf breached right behind our boat! Then, just a few seconds later, Mudskipper breached! Then the calf breached again!! Awesome!! We always hope to see a breach but in reality, they only happen now and then. Luck was on our side today!

Mudskipper's calf, breaching as we turned to leave

We waited a few more minutes to see if the activity would continue but as soon as it started, it also ended. Mudskipper surfaced near our boat, with her calf in tow, and we slowly departed the area...again.

Great day! And congrats to our winner of the humpback whale adoption!

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July 19 Prince of Whales-Sperm whale!!!!!!!!

"Wicked awesome" trip today on the Prince of Whales! Easily one of the top 5 most memorable whale watches I've had in the past 14 years. I saw a SPERM WHALE for the first time in my life - the rarest of the rare on Jeffreys Ledge! Thanks to the patience of Captain Billy and the passengers on board, we waited 44 minutes for Mr/Mrs Sperm whale to surface (thankfully within less than a mile of the boat). The distinctive notch on the right side of it's fluke confirms it's the same sperm whale spotted last August on the Ledge. I missed it then, but not this time - Amazing! Oh yeah, and we had minke, fins, a humpback, a blue shark, a basking shark, seals, AND an ocean sunfish, WEEEEEEEEE! What a day.

-Dave MacLaren


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