Fri July 18 – Whale Watching

It was a beautiful day on the water yesterday with a refreshing breeze and cooler temperatures than
those experienced earlier in the week. The whales were around and we found our first – a humpback
about seven miles off Montauk. This whale was spending long intervals beneath the surface and
popping up only briefly 200-300 yards away, making for a difficult encounter. We decided to continue in
hopes of finding another individual, which we did, just ahead of the first. This whale, however, was also
exhibiting long dive times and surfacing far away from the vessel and after photographic investigation
post-trip, turned out to be the same individual as previously encountered. With little bait detected in
the area, it is likely this whale was traveling (and quickly at that) in search of food. While quite natural
an observation, we realize this can be frustrating for passengers who want a closer look, so we
continued on in search of others. About 15 miles off Montauk, we observed two blows, belonging to a
presumed-juvenile humpback and a small finback whale. Both whales were exhibiting the same behavior
as the first two, with long dive times and distance traveled between blows. With little bait detected here
as well, we understood that they were also on the move, so we decided to do the same by heading west
toward an area where we have encountered cetaceans previously. Here, we found between 80-100
short-beaked common dolphins who were more than happy to delight everyone on board by
approaching the vessel and swimming alongside for minutes at a time, offering everyone incredible
views and a truly memorable encounter. On one of their approaches, passengers could hear the
dolphins communicating underwater – an amazing experience! Birders on board were happy to
document three species of shearwater and a good number of Wilson’s storm petrels. The return trip
along the south shore offered everyone outstanding views of Montauk’s cliffs and beaches, and its
historic lighthouse and grounds.
2 humpback whales
1 finback whale
80-100 short-beaked common dolphin
50-70 great shearwaters
10-12 Cory’s shearwaters
2 sooty shearwaters
80-100 Wilson’s storm petrels