Wed July 26 – Whale Watching

An epic trip unlike any this century!

We headed out to sea to escape the heat. We had reports of dolphins and whales and headed SE and soon found a group of 50-60 inshore bottlenose dolphins, chasing their prey over an area of about 1 square nautical mile. After the dolphins we headed south to no avail. We then traveled east, then north and on our way we saw blows! We never gave up and the whales we found were 5 fin whales! They were circle feeding, taking 3-5 minute dives to feed on the dense bait we were seen at the surface (to 20 feet) and on the bottom (100 feet). There appeared to be a mom/calf pair in this group of 45. The adults were easily 60-70′ long and probably weighed 120-140,000 lbs.

We have not seen 5 fin whales swimming together and feeding this actively this century. We got back to the dock late, but nobody complained!

50-60 Inshore bottlenose dolphins

5 fin whales (finback whales)

127 Great shearwaters

7 Cory’s shearwaters