Whale Watching

Only fainting glimpses today. Nice weather, favorable seas and 10+ miles of visibility, while traveling over 44 miles only yielding a few of us a brief view of a cetacean. We had an unidentified whale blow spotted by one of our CRESLI volunteers a mile or so behind us. We searched long and hard but never saw the whale come up again. A while later, a dolphin was spotted by a few members of the crew only to swim away and not seen again. We also had an unknown shark species swim by close to the boat, giving people on that side a quick view before disappearing. We do not get many trips like this with great conditions and little to no sightings. Our track record says we will have better days in the future. 1 unidentified whale species blow…

Another successful trip! 2 minkes and 1 humpback! What a wonderful day we had on the Viking Starship! Unlimited visibility and crisp cool air were perfect conditions for finding whales. Again with 30 minutes of passing Montauk Light, we found a minke whale that allowed us some wonderful views as it swam repeatedly near the bow.  We headed further and 45 minutes later, another minke (larger the 1st one) surfaced within 2 yards of the starboard side of our bow sprit. Captain Davy immediately stopped and the whale dove as the crew collectively held its breath. Within 30 minutes we encountered a 35-40′ humpback that was one we had seen on Wednesday, We had amazing views as this whale rolled over and was logging (resting) with intermittent low-fluking and high-fluking dive to reach the massive concentrations of prey at 40′…

Within 20 minutes of passing the Montauk Lighthouse, we saw our first whale spout. We spent some time with this young humpback whale giving us a blow or two and before diving down. Showing us its tail fluke, presumably to forage on baitfish close to sea floor and then surfacing every three minutes or so. This humpback gave us a peduncle throw for everyone to see as well. Continuing heading west, we saw another young humpback whale giving us a blow or two before diving. This humpback only fluked once likely feeding close to the surface. Overall, a very nice day out on the water with unlimited visibility. 2 Humpback Whales 1 Corey’s Shearwater

A special day!! 8 humpback whales,1 minke whale, 120 bottlenose dolphins!! Our best day of the 2021 season so far started with many whale reports. good visibility and good seas. Within 35 minutes of Montauk Lighthouse we were with the first of 8 humpback whales. We encountered just about every humpback behavior we could think of including: breaching, flipper-slapping, tail-slapping, tail throwing, low fluking dives, high fluking dives, logging. Here, we also found 120 inshore bottlenose dolphins (3 groups of 40) and 1 minke whale. We often had whales on every side of the vessel. All of this in a 3.5 square mile area. 8 humpback whales 1 minke whale 120 inshore bottlenose dolphin 1 Wilson’s storm petrel 1 Northern Gannet

Beautiful day to be out on the water today, calm seas of 1 – 2 feet, unlimited visibility and water temperature between 70 – 72 degrees Fahrenheit.  While traveling west along the coast of Montauk we came upon a large school of bunker (Menhaden).  Hoping to find some cetaceans looking for a nice meal but not luck.  Traveling away from the coast, we found an ocean sunfish (Mola mola) which swam directly next to the boat giving everyone onboard a great view.  Traveling further away from shore a Minke whale gave us three quick views before disappearing out of sight.  During out travels we spotted 9 Wilson Storm Petrels and 2 Cory’s Shearwaters.  

Another double species day! Humpbacks and minke whales! We headed out to excellent conditions with nearly unlimited visibility,2-3 foot seas,and reports of whales and dolphins nearby. With the predicted stormy conditions to occur within a few hours, we headed west and stayed nearer to shore than on previous trips. Spoiler alert – the predicted severe…

7 Hammerhead sharks, too many balloons, a tail throwing/slapping humpback, and bottlenose dolphins We headed out to look for whales and once again to escape from the heat. The visibility was 4 miles at first, but continued to open up as we headed south for a while, then east and after 2 hours from the…

We left Montauk today with unlimited visibility and headed to where we had seen whales on Saturday.  As soon as we passed Montauk Point, we looked for dolphins and continued heading southeast.  Our first blows were from a whale seen on Saturday.  This poor whale is identifiable because of a massive set of propeller scars on its right side and its dorsal fin was mostly gone.  This is a young whale that had been seen in the NY harbor area and catalogued as NYC0224 by our colleagues at Gotham Whale. It was last seen around NYC on 6/25. We stayed with this whale for a while and headed to a second whale in the area. We ultimately met and photographed 4 humpbacks on this trip.  They were busy feeding and looking for food, often times coming up right next to…

An Awesome Day of Whales and Dolphins We left Montauk today with overcast skies, heading southeast to where we had previously seen whales.  As soon as we passed Montauk Point, we had reports of dolphins close inshore, south of the point.  We headed over and soon came upon a pod of about 10 bottlenose dolphins. After some time with these dolphins, we continued southeast.  We had only traveled about 4 miles before we started to see “blows”.  We came up to a group of 6 humpback whales. They remained in this one area actively feeding.  We got some great looks at both the mature and a younger, small humpback (who once swam under the boat and surfaced only 30 feet away). The whales were making short dives to feed on the abundant bands of fish at the bottom and then on…

Finback whale! We left the dock at Montauk to look for whales and escape the heat.  Once we got into water with sea surface temperatures in the 63-640F, we relished the cool air. The winds were as predicted, SW at 15-20 knots, the seas were as predicted also at 3-4 feet. We headed SW 8 for…