Sun Aug 11 – Whale Watching

What a day! The excitement was palpable as we headed toward an area where whales had been
reported about twelve miles south of Montauk. Our transit was interrupted multiple times by several
groups of Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins consisting of at least 200 individuals collectively. These pods
were very active, exhibiting multiple surface displays including fluke slapping, breaching, porpoising, and
tail-walking (“standing”). Mating was also observed at the water’s surface! We continued on and made
our way to the whales, encountering at first over a dozen humpbacks, including one curious calf, which
was seen breaching, rolling over, and pec-slapping near the vessel. Close approaches by multiple whales
brought sheer joy to the passengers as they purposefully swam and surfaced near the bow, as our vessel
sat safely out of gear. Then things got really exciting as even more humpbacks moved into the area
including not one, but two pairs of flipper-slapping whales, as the calf continued its own flipper-slapping
on the opposite side of the vessel. All in all, we encountered close to two dozen humpbacks, several of
which we recognized as individuals documented on previous trips this season. Our passengers had a ball
and one even shared that of all the whale watches they have ever been on (including Iceland, the
Azores, and Canada), this was the best. We agree; this season has been astounding!

160-220 Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins
20-25 humpback whales
1 unidentified shark
60-80 Wilson’s storm petrels
8-12 Cory’s shearwaters
4-6 great shearwaters
1 Sooty shearwater
1 Manx shearwater (documented by passenger)
1 Parasitic jaeger (documented by passenger)