These reports were provided by Jennifer Hafner, a former intern of the Whale Center Of New England, who now works as a naturalist for the Isle of Shoals Steamship Co. and as a contributing researcher of field data to the Whale Center Of New England.
Our first whale watch in awhile, and what an awesome day! There was tons of life on Jeffreys Ledge, and we had total sightings of two humpbacks, three fin whales, three minke whales, and 100-150 Atlantic white-sided dolphins!
The humpbacks are as yet unidentified, but we believe they were whales we've seen out here in the past. The dolphins seemed very playful - we watched them nearly swarm around the boat for about 30 minutes - as we cruised around they would "surf" in our wake, and swim right up under our bow!
We also saw an ocean sunfish yesterday - the amazing thing was that we sighted it on our way out, and then we saw the same fish on the return trip! This fish was about 4-5 feet across, and came right in close to the boat. We were very sad to have to turn off the Ledge and come into the dock after such great sightings!
This is why we often say September is our best whale watching month. We had sightings of four humpback whales, 3 fin whales, and 1 minke whale.
Two of the humpbacks "logged" next to the boat for about 20 minutes (logging is the whale's resting state - referred to as "logging" because the whale often resembles a large log floating on the water). We got terrific looks at these whales, who were familiar humpbacks, Clamp (who we first sighted in 1990), and Spoon, a large female humpback we've been seeing in the Gulf of Maine since 1979!
Spoon thrilled us by casually lifting her large, 15-foot long flipper out of the water several times. We later moved on to another pair of humpbacks (these two are as yet unidentified), and also had a terrific sighting of one of the three finbacks - the whale crossed our bow and we got a great look at its white jaw patch and beautiful chevron/blaze marking. What a day - we didn't want to return home!
We had a beautiful day on the ocean today, with several whales in the area. We saw three fin whales, and three minkes, and finished up the trip with a terrific pod of about 50 Atlantic white-sided dolphins! The pod was pretty playful, with dolphins swimming within feet of our bow. We also got to see two or three dolphin calves swimming with their mothers!
As we watched the two whales, two adult, 65-70' long fin whales moved through the area together, so we had humpbacks on our right, and fin whales on our left, giving a great comparison of the two species.
Then, to our surprise, Valley started giving "trumpet blows" - where the whale exhales, but actually sounds like an elephant's trumpeting - a sound we think is usually associated with excitement or agitation. Then, suddenly, Hercules breached out of the water, jumping almost fully out of the water and spinning before she smacked into the surface with all forty tons of her weight! As we all looked on in amazement, Valley did the same thing - we had two of these forty-to-fifty ton whales breach right in front of us, almost simultaneously!
Well, we think we knew the cause of all the excitement - moments later, a whale named Fan joined the group. Fan is another female, identified by her bright white fluke (tail) with a fan-shaped scar on the left side. We watched the three whales travel together for a while, then reluctantly left them to head back to Portsmouth. Again today, our plankton tow was teeming with tiny zooplankton (animal plankton) and fish eggs!
We also saw about ten Atlantic white-sided dolphins feeding; it was a small pod that seemed to be comprised of small- to medium-sized dolphins. Then we had an exciting sightings of two fin whales. We moved in to get a closer look at one of the whales, and it started lunge feeding at the surface! The whale moved in large circles as it chased after fish, and at one point, the whole whale was at the surface and we saw its mouth wide open at one endand its tail at the other end - it was huge! We saw the fin whale lunge at the surface many times, and then it seemed to slow down and travel around to look for more fish.
We also saw a couple basking sharks throughout the day, two of these sharks breached right out of the water! And, when we were watching one fin whale, we also had about three giant bluefin tuna jump out of the water right next to the boat. What an exciting day!
We had a spectacular day today. We started out the trip with great looks at two minke whales, then moved on to see a huge (65-70') fin whale lunge-feeding at the surface! Several times, the whale swam on its side as it chased after fish, and we even got to see its fluke (tail) and flippers above water, which is very rare for a fin whale.
We watched this whale surface several times right next to us, and then moved on to another exciting sighting - a sei whale! The only other time we had seen this species was a few days ago, on August 13, and we hadn't expected to be lucky enough to see another one. This whale spent much of its time under the surface, but we could follow it by its flukeprints (the slick circle left at the water surface when a whale pumps its tail up and down), and eventually we ended with a great look at the sei whale as it surfaced near us.
We then headed for home, but were surprised by a second fin whale! To add to the excitement of the day, we saw several huge splashes, which we think were from basking sharks jumping out of the water! Twice, this happened only about 50 feet from the boat, but it happened so quickly we could only guess that it was a shark (basking sharks "breach" occasionally, but we're not sure why) . We saw the splashes several times throughout the day though, evidence of lots of activity around us.
In addition to the whale and fish activity, there were many boats out fishing for giant bluefin tuna, and the surface water temperature was about 62 degrees.
Another great day on the ocean, with a variety of life. We saw five minke whales, two ocean sunfish, and about 150 Atlantic white-sided dolphins!
This is the first dolphin pod we've seen up close all season, and it was an exciting pod to watch! Some of the dolphins leapt several feet in the air, many times, others came in close to the boat to ride our stern and bow waves.
There were also two or three very small calves in the group. The dolphins fed and surfed near the Oceanic for nearly an hour, hardly moving the whole time, so we got terrific looks at them and the long white stripe down their side that gave these dolphins their name.
We did a lot of exploring today, but ended up with close sightings of two minke whales. One of the most exciting parts of the trip was seeing a large (4-5' across) ocean sunfish - the sunfish swam placidly around, and ended up about 3 feet away from the boat! We got a very good look at the strange fish and its unique coloration. There has also been many bluefin tuna fishing boats in the area (however, no sightings of the actual tuna fish!), and our plankton tow was full again today - you could even smell a "plankton smell" in the air.
The fog continued today, and unfortunately the visibility decreased significantly from yesterday. We decided to give it a go, though, since sometimes the fog lifts during the trip. This didn't happen today - we spent the day searching inside Jeffrey's Ledge with a few other whale watch boats, without much luck. We were lucky to see two harbor seals, though, one near the Isles of Shoals and one near the mouth of Portsmouth Harbor. Hopefully we'll have better visibility tomorrow!
Today was a bit foggy, but we still had exciting sightings of at least four minke whales, 3 fin whales, and two harbor seals. At one exciting point, two adult fin whales surfaced together, with several minkes nearby.
It was a nice trip today - we had calm seas and lots of marine life around. We had one finback whale, and several minke whales throughout the day. We also had several schools of giant bluefin tuna, and could see these large (probably 200-400 pounds) fish jumping in the water in pursuit of smaller fish! We also ended the trip with a nice look at an ocean sunfish that was about 4 feet across!
It was a nice, calm day on the ocean today. We went about 11 miles offshore, and had total sightings of two fin whales, three minke whales, and two harbor seals. At one exciting point, one of the fin whales headed directly towards us, and spouted several times before it veered off in another direction.
We had enough sightings to keep us busy today, with five fin whales and four minke whales. We began our trip with a quick sighting of a fin whale and several minkes near the Isles of Shoals. Eventually, we moved into an area with a total of 5 fin whales nearby - at one point, we witnessed two adults traveling together - what an amazing sight it is to see two 70 foot long animals surface together!
It was especially exciting because all of these whales had markings which will allow us to identify them easily in the future - a couple were whales we've already seen this week, but we also realized we've had many different fin whales in the area - a great sign for the health of the local fin whale population!
A fun day - we spent the majority of the day only 12 miles offshore with a large (65-70 foot) finback whale. It was difficult to see the whale at first, because it traveled for a long time, but eventually we were lucky enough to see the whale feeding right next to the boat!
The whale seemed to be circling around a school of fish, eventually lunging in towards the school of fish after it had scared them into a tighter group. Most of this activity took place below the water surface, but when the whale surfaced for breaths, we did get great, close looks at it. We were also surprised at one point by a huge lunge from the whale, when the whale threw most of its head and front end out of the water as it lunged after fish - what a spectacular sight!
Also, we saw three minke whales nearby, and got a terrific look at one of those whales before we headed for home.
Another great day with calm seas. We saw ten minke, two finback, and two humpback whales. As in the past few days, we started off with many minke whales, then moved on to see larger whales.
We spent most of the day with an adult humpback, a female named Midnight, that did more bubble-feeding right next to the boat, although the whale seemed to be feeding more deeply than Compass and her calf had been the past couple days.
At one exciting point, the humpback surfaced, and a fin whale (see photo) surfaced next to it - the whales crossed paths, and then they both dove. It was neat to see the two species right next to each other, we got a great comparison of the different characteristics of the two whales.
On our last whale watch of the season, we had a beautiful day, with sightings of four fin and two minke whales. The fin whales were very exciting, coming very close to the boat as one of them fed at the surface. We ended the day with a beautiful sunset over the harbor. See you in May 2000!
Sunday, September 19, 1999
Sunday, September 12
Sunday, September 5
Friday, August 27
It doesn't get much better than this. We got out near Jeffreys Ledge, about 18 miles from Portsmouth Harbor, to find two fin whales and five humpback whales! The humpbacks were spread out at first, but we began following a pair, which seemed to be traveling slowly East. We had several surfacings, and got terrific looks at the whales, who we identified as a female, Valley, and another female, Hercules (also called Tanith by some researchers). We hadn't seen either of these whales in our area in a while, although they used to frequent our area a few years ago.
Friday, August 20
We had an awesome day today, with sightings of many different species. We had a surprising number of 6 minke whales right near the Isles of Shoals - one of the whales lunged several times at the surface as it pursued fish. We ended up seeing a total of 10 minkes throughout the day.
Wednesday, August 17
Wednesday, August 11
Thursday, August 5
Monday, July 26
Sunday, July 25
Wednesday, July 21
Friday, July 16
Sunday, July 11
Tuesday, July 6
Thursday, July 1
A surprising day today! It was raining when we left the dock, and the skies looked very gray, but it turned out to be well worth the trip. We had our first look at a minke whale between two of the Isles of Shoals! That was a surprise - that's the closest to shore we've seen a whale all season. We then stayed fairly close to shore, as the seaswere picking up. On a hunch, we explored a smaller ledge a bit southeast of the Isles of Shoals, and found a very familiar humpback whale, an adult named Marble (we think Marble is a male) that was first sighted in the Gulf of Maine in 1980! Marble traveled for some time, then started feeding and moving more slowly, so we got a few terrific looks at him. There were also a couple minkes (see photo) feeding in the area near Marble. It was a fun day!
Wednesday, June 23
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