These reports and images are provided with permission by Jennifer Hafner and Dianne Schulte, former interns of the Whale Center Of New England, now of the Blue Ocean Society, who also work as a naturalists for the Isle of Shoals Steamship Co. and Newburyport Whale Watch and as contributing researchers, providing field data to the Whale Center Of New England. Contact them with further inquiries.

October 5: The Prince of Whales reported sightings of an active pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins today and nice looks at a fin whale. So, the whales are still here! We have one weekend left of whale watching (Oct 11 and 12) so join us before the boats are hauled out for the season and the whales head down south!

September 29: Much of last week's trips were canceled due to weather, but there have been some recent sightings of Rizzo's dolphins (which are rarely seen in this area), finback whales, dolphins and humpback whales. We'll keep whale watching through mid-October, so visit us soon!Ê

September 14: We're mostly down to weekend trips now, with a few trips scheduled during the week. Yesterday brought more Sei whales, lunge-feeding finbacks, and a juvenile humpback we haven't yet identified. Today our affiliates on the Prince of Whales were delighted to see a pod of common dolphins! While these dolphins are pretty common in general (as their name suggests), we don't see them in our area very often, so this was a great sighting. September has once again proven to be a great month to see some of our rarely-sighted whale species!

September 7: We've been surprised this weekend with sightings of several Sei whales and even a right whale! Sei whales, which look a little like smaller finbacks, move into our area only once or twice a summer usually, if at all. Right whales are the most endangered whale species in our area, with only 350 of them left worldwide. There have also been a few finbacks around. September is a great time for whale watching, and we've had some beautiful days so far. Come join us!

August 31: Sightings have been off and on lately. We had a humpback, Freckles (named for white spots on its dorsal fin), feeding off of Kennebunkport, ME one day. Since then, the humpbacks have seemed to disappear again, but we've gotten some great looks at finbacks, and had a huge, active pod of white-sided dolphins yesterday. Today we had several fin whales up north off of York, ME again, and got terrific looks at one of them.

August 25: The whales are back! Today and over the weekend, we have had some terrific looks at finbacks and humpbacks. On Saturday, we had one humpback whale bubble feeding, but in a very predictable pattern - it would surface, bring its tail up and then smack it on the water, creating a bubble cloud (which probably scared the fish and got them into a good "ball"). The whale would dive down, and about 30 seconds later, we'd see its gigantic head come up, mouth wide open and full of fish!

Today was really spectacular - the whale reappeared just a mile or two off of Boon Island, only about 8 miles off the coast of York, ME. The whale repeated the same feeding behavior. There was another humpback whale bubble-feeding nearby, and about six different finbacks in the area. The two humpbacks fed quite differently, providing an opportunity for us to learn more about the behaviors of individual humpbacks. Who knows how long the whales will be around, but we sure had fun watching them today!

August 22: It's been hard to find a baleen whale lately, but we've been excited to find a few large pods of Atlantic white-sided dolphins near Jeffrey's Ledge. Today's pod was large and active, and consisted of about 75-100 dolphins. There were many small calves in the pod, which were fun to watch. The calves are sometimes called "footballs" because they are so small and shaped like a football!

August 18: There were many whales around today, with several minkes, a few finbacks, and an old favorite, a female humpback named Trident . We were sad to find out, though, that one of our naturalists had spotted some fishing gear on Trident, and it turns out that she was entangled in a gillnet. The entanglement was reported to the Center for Coastal Studies' disentanglement team in Provincetown. Trident actually swam closer to Provincetown the next day, and disentanglement team staff were able to free her from much of the gear. Unfortunately, Trident was taking long dives and only surfacing for a few seconds, so they could not get all the gear off of her. However, as she swam away she was better off than when the entanglement was first noticed. We're hoping for a re-sighting of Trident soon to see if she has freed the rest of the gear on her own.

August 10: Things have been slowing down a bit, with a few whales on Jeffreys and slow reports on Stellwagen Bank. However, we've been getting some great looks at minke whales and an occasional finback.

August 9: We had several minkes out on the Ledge today, and the surprising sighting of a small pod of Atlantic bottlenose dolphins! Although these dolphins are common worldwide, they seem to spend most of their time in the North Atlantic further offshore, as it is very rare to see them in our area.

August 5: We had a finback - amazingly - about 4 miles offshore today, and a minke and a humpback about 20 miles offshore.

August 4: We've continued to see a few finback whales and lots of minkes, and Satula is still in the area. We got great looks at Satula today, who seemed to be deep-feeding using bubble clouds.

July 27: We had great sightings today, with a finback and couple minkes on Jeffreys, and afternoon sightings of two humpback whales: Wy , a male first seen in 1980, and Satula (who we think is a male), first seen in 1988.

July 26: We were surprised with the sighting of a couple humpbacks today, and happy to find out that they were two whales that we've been studying for awhile - Wy , a male first seen in 1980, and Flask, a female first seen in 1981. There were also a few minkes and a finback in the area, and some pilot whales sighted by the Prince of Whales on their morning trip.

July 25: Rough seas kept the boats in a few days this week, but the Prince of Whales went out today and got great looks at a finback whale in the morning, followed by a pod of pilot whales in the afternoon.

July 22: It was a bit bumpy out today, but the whales didn't disappoint! We ended up finding 3-4 finback whales and 1-2 minkes. One of the finbacks was lunging at the surface when we came upon it, quickly scooping up krill into its gigantic mouth! We saw the whale lunge a few times, and then got some close looks as it surfaced next to the boat. - Jen Kennedy, Atlantic Fishing & Whale Watching

July 21: We had a few humpbacks moving into the area this past weekend. Our naturalists spent time watching the humpback Pinball and her calf. Pinball was feeding and the calf kept swimming with its mouth open, mimicking its mom when she was feeding! We also saw two old favorites, Sickle and Quote , two humpbacks that we've been seeing in the Gulf of Maine for about 20 years.

Yesterday we got great looks at several finback whales and minkes, with closer looks than we've seen in a long time.

July 17: Report from Newburyport Whale Watch, one of our affiliates: "Beautiful day, and we went to a different area thanks to some reports from some fishermen. We were rewarded with a wonderful pod of over 40 pilot whales, right next to the boat as we drifted with engines off. Really great, close looks. We also had equally close encounters with a 70-foot long finback whale... pretty impressive right next to the boat! Afternoon trip - Pilot whales, 2 finbacks, and minke whales. Birds - Lots of birds for many miles. 1,000+ Wilson's storm petrels, 4 Northern gannets, 100+ Greater shearwaters, 1 Sooty, and 1 Manx."

July 14: Sightings have picked up, with numerous fin and minke whales around, and a few pods of pilot whales throughout the past week! Although they are fairly common worldwide, we usually only see this type of whale a few times a summer when they happen to come closer to shore. The pilot whales surprised us yesterday by showing up right near the Isles of Shoals, so our first sighting was within 1/2 hour of leaving the dock!

July 9: Even though it was foggy part of the day, our naturalists spotted several minke whales, a small pod of white sided dolphins, and 1-2 finback whales throughout the day.

July 8: More whales seem to be moving into the area; yesterday we saw one finback whale, 5-6 minkes and a small pod (15-20) of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, all in one area about 18 miles off of Rye, NH. The fin whale moved pretty slowly and dove right underneath the boat a couple times! Jen Kennedy, naturalist, Atlantic Fishing & Whale Watching.

July 4: Happy Independence Day! The sightings have slowed down this week, but we've been getting good looks at 2-3 finbacks per day, plus a few minkes scattered throughout the week. Fishing boats have reported a large concentration of humpbacks well offshore (farther than whale watch boats can reach in a trip), hopefully they will come back into our vicinity soon! For now you can join us and hope to see the second-largest animal on earth, the finback whale!

July 1: The large groups of humpbacks have scattered, but we've been seeing several finbacks, minkes and a few humpbacks throughout the week. Some of the humpbacks identified were Pinball and her new calf, Echo, and Flask.

June 25: Sightings have been great over the past week, with multiple finbacks, humpbacks and minkes on Jeffreys Ledge. We've seen at least 8 or 9 different humpbacks out this week. Although we are still waiting to identify some whales, some of the whales we have identified over the past week were Owl (and her new calf!), Tear, Apostrophe, Ase, Trident, Colt, Chromosome, Quote and Sickle.

June 18: Yesterday the seas were rough and sightings were limited, but we did see a finback and a minke. Today we had calmer seas and great sighting conditions, and the whales were wonderful! We traveled out to Old Scantum, a small ledge a few miles inshore of Jeffreys Ledge aboard the M/V Granite State and saw 7 finbacks and 3 minkes. The definite highlight of the trip was seeing a mother/calf finback pair and having the calf circle the boat several times! This is the same mother/calf pair we've been lucky enough to see several times this season, and the calf always seems curious about the boat while the mom is off busily feeding.

June 16: We've had some terrific sightings lately, with multiple species reported by all of our affiliate boats. We've regularly been seeing several finbacks and minke on each trip, and have often seen small Atlantic white-sided dolphin pods swimming with finbacks! We've also seen a few humpbacks that are old favorites, including Trident, Ase and Apostrophe!Ê

June 2: Our 2003 whale watch season is underway! We've had some great sightings to start off the season. So far there has been plenty of finback whales around. On Friday, May 30 we were lucky enough to have a mother and calf finback pair. The calf seemed very curious and circled the boat (Atlantic Queen II) several times, allowing us to get great close-up looks at it! Our naturalists on the Prince of Whales went a bit further south and encountered several humpback whales (including Trident and Hornbill), finbacks, minkes and a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins!