Fri July 24 – Whale Watching

With unlimited visibility, we had good odds of finding whales and dolphins, that we did. Ultimately, we encountered 8-12 humpback in (including warm mom/calf pairs) and around 8 minke whales, along with 60-8O short-baked common dolphins. AMAZING! We also encountered hundreds of pelagic birds including Great shearwaters, Corey’s shearwaters, Sooty shearwaters, and Manx shearwaters, as well as hundreds of Wilson’s storm petrels. The shearwaters were found in small groups while in transit and of course, in large numbers with the feeding whales. Interestingly, Dr. Artie Kopelman (our naturalist) mentioned when we were just coming up on the whales, that he had “not seen a single Wilson’s storm petrel for the entire ride out.”  As soon as he said that, about 120-150 flew into view.

• 8-12 humpback whales
• 5 MINKE WHALES
• 60-80 Short-beaked common dolphins
• 130 Great shearwaters*
• 150 Cory’s shearwaters*
• 35 Sooty shearwaters*
• 120-150 Wilson’s storm petrels*

*bird count estimates are conservative and based on those identified at time of encounter; there were many more in the are

Photos to view and/or purchase to help support our work – prints, digital copies, and framed artwork available soon