Sat Aug 16 – Whale Watching

A beautiful day on the water rich with whale and dolphin sightings!
Yesterday was our first Saturday excursion of the year and what a precedent it set! We exchanged the
sweltering heat on land for cool ocean breezes under clear, blue skies and excellent visibility. Although
we planned to travel ten or more miles to find cetaceans, the whales had other plans, stopping us only a
few miles out to investigate a flipper-slapping juvenile humpback. This individual lay belly-up at the
surface slapping both flippers at the surface, a form of communication with other humpbacks. We
watched the activity until the whale began short, consistent two-minute dives, likely feeding on the rich
schools of bunker nearby. A brief shark sighting was made and the whale surprised us with an inverted
lobtailing, just as, a second humpback, not surprisingly, was observed in the area. As crazy as it may
seem, we moved on to our destination with the hopes of finding even more. Our transit, however, was
interrupted once again, this time by a small pod of Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins. We continued on
and began seeing blows over a mile away. As we approached, we discovered at least 9 humpbacks
including (at least) two mom/calf pairs which we spent time with. The whales included an associated
pair, an associated trio, and at one point, a group of five not far from the vessel. A minke whale also,
briefly, appeared as we watched the humpbacks. Then things got exciting as a humpback calf began
close approaches near the vessel, joined by the associated pair, and then the associated trio. We looked
left. We looked right. Then, two fin whales appeared 150 feet from the bow. The excitement was
palpable! It was an incredible day and we were honored to be a part of it.
11-13 humpback whales
3 finback whales
1 minke whale
1 shark (of unknown species) with many others spotted by passengers along our transit
80-100 Wilson’s storm petrels
16-22 great shearwaters
3-4 Cory’s shearwaters