Whale Watching

Whale Watching 5 Species of dolphins and whales!! Another successful Viking Fleet/CRESLI whale watch on the Viking Starship! This time, we were able to find finback whales, minke whales, and humpback whales, as well as bottlenose dolphins  and short-beaked common dolphins – 5 different species! The whales were spending long times down feeding near the…

Sunday, July 29, 2018 4 Cetacean Species Day! Well we found them again. Finback whales, minke whales, humpback whales, and short-beaked common dolphins. The whales weren’t particularly “cooperative,” spending long times down feeding near the sea floor, but they are there to feed. We found 5 finback whales including 2 mom/calf pairs, 5 humpbacks, 2 minkes whales, and about 150 dolphins. The dolphin rode our bow wake and rode the bow wakes of some of the fin whales. Birders on board were happy to find loads of pelagic birds too. Totals: 5 finback whale 5 humpback whales 2 minke whales 150 short-beaked common dolphins 125 Cory’s shearwaters 55 Great shearwaters 20 Sooty shearwaters 4 Manx shearwaters 7 Parasitic jaegers 1 immature Northern gannet

Wed July 25 More Humpback Whales! It had been a week since we were out last. We wondered whether the stormy weather had affected the prey distribution and whales, but had reports of whales, and Capt Dave had seen whales earlier in the day while fishing. We headed out, and chose a path that would…

Wed July 18 Whales, whales, and more whales! We returned to the area where we found the whales feeding on sand eels on 7/15/18 and the whales, sand eels, and pelagic birds were still there, with new additions! We found 2 minke whales, 4 finback whales, and about 15-20 humpback whales again, feeding voraciously on…

Sunday July 8 3 Species of Whale, 1 Species of Dolphin, and 11 species of Pelagic and Coastal Birds!  What an amazing day on the water. We had reports of whales from Saturday, but we had friends out there and said they weren’t seeing anything. With no information except our 30 year knowledge of whale feeding areas near Montauk, Captain Dave and Naturalist Dr. Artie Kopelman formulated a plan and headed to an area that has almost always has been productive. Within an hour of passing Montauk Light, we had our first minke whale. Like other minkes, this one was elusive. As we were waiting for the minke to resurface, we saw the blows from a larger whale about 1.5 nautical miles (nm) away.  Off we headed to find our second species – humpback whale.  The humpback breached about 1 nm ahead…

Sun July 1 Whales and Dolphins! Our first trip was a success. We had reports and coordinates for hundreds of dolphins and a minke whales sighted this morning and a humpback sighted yesterday. Off we went to find them and we did. The minke was “stinky minke” seen by just a few people. As we…

Whale Watching Schedule – 2018 We are happy to announce the schedule for 2018. We had 100% successful sightings in 2017 and are excited to get back out there this summer! There has been a time change and an additional date added. We will begin sailing on Sunday July 1st and continue thru Sunday September…

Whale Watching 20 Humpbacks!! 100 Bottlenose Dolphins…… Our streak of finding whales continues. This time, within 40 minutes of leaving the dock and about 10 minutes past Montauk Lighthouse we found the first of our 20 humpbacks! There was bait all over – mackerel, sand eels, and bunker. The first 8 whales were feeding on sand eels. The last 12 were feeding on bunker. Single whales and 4 mom/calf pairs were seen. Oh, and loads of bottlenose dolphins too. Breaching, tail throws, flipper drops, and tail kicks happened often. It was an amazing day with non-stop whales for over 4 hours. Totals: 20 Humpback Whales 100 Inshore Bottlenose Dolphins 5 Cory’s Shearwaters 2 Wilson’s Storm Petrels

Whale Watching July 9 2017 Whales, dolphins, sunfish, and a sea turtle. What a day we had! An amazing trip-even better than last week’s. We saw 11 fin whales, 500 dolphins, a loggerhead turtle and lots of action and pelagic birds. We were headed to a spot around 15 nautical miles away but began to find whales closer. Our first whales were a cow/calf pair with the calf logging (sleeping) at the surface and the mother was searching for food. This pair we had seen a week earlier 10 miles to the southwest. The calf was logging (sleeping) just under the surface. After a while with them, we headed further out and found another cow/calf pair that were staying close to each other as we would expect because the calf was small and young, diving together, swimming together. The calf…

Whale Watching Sun July 2 – 8 Fin Whales – 1 Minke Whale – 1 Blue Shark – 46 Great Shearwaters – 80 Cory’s Shearwaters – 25 Sooty Shearwaters – 120 Wilson’s Storm Petrels – 1 Ocean Sunfish – 4 Manx Shearwaters – 1 South Polar Skua – 1 Black Tern Wow! What a way to start the season! Things started slowly, with little action until we saw the Ocean Sunfish. Shortly thereafter, we began to see large numbers of shearwaters and petrels and we got a lot of repeats of whales just 1.5 miles directly ahead of us. We found 5 fin whales there, spreadout over a half a mile, including a mom and calf (our first whales) and 3 others. There was bait on the water from 50-170 feet down. We began to head home and found 3 more…