Sun Aug 17 – Whale Watching
Another successful trip with 5 species of cetaceans and a loggerhead sea turtle!
A rich diversity of marine mammals and sea turtles were seen during today’s trip on the Viking Starship. The capacity crowd got to see things that many had never seen before. We headed to the same area where we’ve been seeing whales and dolphins for a few weeks. It’s actually an area that used to be the prime area for sightings for decades! Near Montauk, we encountered a small group of Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops erebennus). Offshore, in view of the Block Island Windfarm, from miles away, again, we saw the splashes of breaching whales and the blows of humpback and finback whales.A few minutes before encountering our first whale, we encountered a loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) and were able to see it and photographic it eye-to-eye using a zoom telephoto lens at 600mm. Shortly thereafter, our encounters with cetaceans began: fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae), short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), and common bottlenose dolphins (T. truncatus). While the pelagic bird sightings were low, we still managed a few when with the whales. The seas picked up and wit was a bouncy ride on the way back, but none-the-less, a spectacular trip!
- 6 humpback whales
- 6 finback whales
- 30 Tamanend’s bottlenose dolphins
- 100 Short-beaked common dolphins
- 200 Wilson’s storm petrels
- 16 great shearwaters
- 3 Cory’s shearwaters
Photos soon
