Mon June 30 – Whale Watching

Our second trip of the season started out in a thick layer of fog that quickly enveloped the point despite
clearer skies at the dock. Excitement onboard though was palpable like the mist consuming the region.
Despite the limited visibility, passengers were afforded close-up views of a variety of pelagic birds
including Cory’s, Great, and Sooty shearwaters, along with flocks of the small but mighty Wilson’s storm
petrels. Our captain wisely steered us into deeper waters with the hope that there, the fog would lift,
and that it did! As if a switch was suddenly flipped, the skies cleared to nearly unlimited visibility at
which point, a small pod of dolphins was spotted off the starboard bow. At first the pod was tricky to
find again, but then several other small pods were observed around the vessel. We spent some time
here, enjoying some good looks at porpoising and playful Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins before
continuing southwest in hopes of finding larger cetaceans. It took some time, but eventually a large
spout belonging to a finback whale was observed about a half a mile away. With bait detected along the
bottom, this whale was likely feeding, spending little time at the surface and long stretches underwater.
Observing finback (fin) whales can be tricky because they are incredibly sleek and fast. In 6-8 minutes
time, they can move ¼ mile away from where last observed. We had some far-off views, but others
close enough to see the body and the characteristic fin. The blow itself is also impressive and was
exciting to behold. As we headed back to port, we encountered a beautiful flock of sooty shearwaters,
mixed with Great and Cory’s and more Wilson storm petrels along the way. More views of porpoising
bottlenose and at least one seal were enjoyed as the sun set beautifully over the water.
Our season is only just beginning and every trip is unique. Come out and see why we have been doing
this for 30 years!

150-200 Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins
1 finback whale
1 seal of unknown species
30-50 great shearwaters
50-60 Cory’s shearwaters
8-12 sooty shearwaters
80-120 Wilson storm petrels