Sat Aug 23 – Whale Watching

We headed out after the effects of Hurricane Erin were settling down. Often after these kinds of events, we are sure what might become of the whales’ prey and the whales. We decided to head towards where we had been finding whales over the past few weeks. We were pleasantly surprised by finding whales significantly closer than we expected. At first we saw the characteristic towering blows of finback whales, a mom and her calf. After a while, we headed towards a nearby pair of humpback whales, also a mom and her calf. In both cases always a special treat to see.

The humpbacks could be seen open-mouth feeding and filtering – again, always a pleasure to see, whether you’re a newbie or have been at it for nearly 4 decades. We ended the trip while looking at our 5th humpback, unfortunately like too many, it had lost its dorsal fin, but otherwise seemed well. Human interactions such as ship-strikes and entanglements are the predominant causses of whale deaths and injuries.  We can all do better. CRESLI and the Viking Fleet are members of the Whale SENSE program and always interact responsibly and appropriately when with marine mammals.

2-4 finback whales

5 humpback whales

5 Wilson’s storm petrels

5 Corey’s shearwaters

4 Great shearwaters

Photos will be available shortly at https://drartiek-cresli.smugmug.com/CRESLI-2025-Whale-Watches/2025-08-23-Montauk-Whale-Watch