Wed July 27 – Whale Watching
It just keeps getting better and better! 5 species of cetaceans and 6 species of pelagic girds on this trip
Twenty minutes from the Lighthouse and about 4 miles away we found 80-100 inshore bottlenose dolphins chasing bait at the surface and diving to 75 feet for bait at the sea floor. We headed on our way and found our first whales about an hour later. We saw 7 different humpback whales blow at the same time! WOW! It gets better – there were two mom/calf humpback pairs including Rune and her 2022 calf. No other humpback researchers knew that she had a calf until we found with her! We have yet to ID the 2nd mom. The humpbacks were breaching, bubble feeding, open mouth feeding, flipper slapping! WOW! We also had at least 4 finback whales – 2 mom/calf pairs. Oh, let’s not forget about 60 short-beaked common dolphins. Another spectacular trip and probably the best yet.
7 humpbacks whales
4 finback whales
2 minke whales
100 inshore bottlenose
60 short-beaked common dolphins
380 Great shearwaters
120 Cory’s shearwaters
8 Sooty shearwaters
12 Manx shearwaters
1 dark phase Parasitic jaeger
2 red phalaropes