June 08, 2012 Whale Watch

2 pm Whale Watch - Krill

A great afternoon offshore. Winds picking up from the SW, but sightings of humpbacks is still fabulous. We had small groups of humpbacks feeding together. Our first sighting was a pair of humpback whales who turned out to be Division and Bard. We moved on from that pair and picked up a second pair that included Blackhole and Centipede. 

All of the humpbacks in our area were kick feeding at the surface. What a splash this behavior makes!  We also had lots of defecation on the afternoon trip. What comes in must go out, I guess!

All in all, a fabulous day offshore with amazing looks at very endangered marine animals. We had sooty shearwaters, manx shearwaters and Northern gannets all feeding with the whales. What fun!

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June 7, 2012 Whale Watch

Sand lance jumping out of a bubble net. 

9 am and 2 pm Whale Watches - Krill 

9 am Whale Watch:

We headed offshore this morning and found 5 humpback whales feeding in the fog. What an beautiful way to watch whales as they were totally shrouded in thick fog. Pea soup is close to what we had offshore today.

We could hear the whales breathing heavily as they surfaced all around the boat to feed. We were amazed to see some of the whales using their flukes (their tail) as a weapon as they smashed the water's surface in an attempt to stun the bait fish below. Then the whales dove beneath the school of fish and started blowing bubbles in a ring-like manner. This bubble net helped trap the fish in the center allowing the whale to get more per mouthful when it rose to the surface.

Minke whale. 

We were able to identify Etch-a-sketch, Division and Centipede, and Ventisca and Wizard. We also had at least 5 minke whales in the area. Great morning of whale watching even with the thick fog.

2 pm Whale Watch:

The fog lifted as we headed offshore. On the southern part of the bank, we found 8 to 10 humpback whales that were feeding at the surface. We also had 6 to 8 minke whales in the same area.

We had great views of kick feeding right next to the boat. One pair of humpbacks decided to bubble net feed on our port side. What a view we had as the whales rose to the surface right next to the boat!

We had two pairs of humpbacks that were feeding together and a single. The single turned out to be Etch-a-Sketch and the pairs were Blackhole who was feeding with Barb and Ventisca who was feeding with Wizard. These are some of the same humpbacks that we saw on our morning trip. But interesting to see how the associations among individuals has changed even over the course of the day.

For seabirds we had Northern gannets (juveniles), sooty shearwaters, greater shearwaters, laughing gulls and one common loon.