Sun Aug 30 – Whale Watching

As we always do, we began our trip reminding passengers that we have no idea what we will see as
these are wild animals that can move tremendous distances and we are here to observe their natural
behaviors (this is not a scripted experience with baited or caged animals); every trip is different. On
many occasions this season, that has meant surprises that we could have never anticipated; encounters
and observations rarely seen and some more often seen, but always unexpected and amazing.
Unfortunately, it also means that sometimes we may find no whales or dolphins at all, and although
extremely rare, that was the case aboard Sunday’s adventure. As we sailed through the area where two
different humpbacks were encountered just the day prior, it was evident that both whales moved on
and no sign of them could be seen. The dolphins that were here only 24 hours earlier had also moved
away and our travels along and off the shore yielded no new sightings. We headed to an area where a
whale was reported only a few hours earlier, but that too had moved out of our view. With experienced
volunteers and crew positioned all around the pilot house, we searched continuously for nearly 5 hours.
Blows and splashes, if they were present, would be visible from miles away, but our investigations
yielded no cetaceans. Pelagic birds (storm petrels, shearwaters, even a phalarope and an immature
gannet) were sporadically seen, but were also relatively sparse with little bait in the area. We traveled to
a spot rich in bait but also to no avail. Where (and why) the whales and dolphins moved to is unknown.
They can move back into the region as quickly as they left, but were nowhere near our search area with
no reports farther from shore. Not often seen lit on our tours, the lighthouse greeted us warmly upon
our return to dock; still a beautiful day at sea as August slowly slips into September.

70-90 Wilson’s storm petrels
40-60 great shearwaters
20-30 Cory’s shearwaters
2 Manx shearwaters
1 Red-necked phalarope
1 immature northern gannet