I'd like to introduce Spinnaker

Hello everyone, well, even though our 2007 whale watch season has officially come to a close we are still reporting whales in our area, and not just reporting whales but still documenting new whales in the Bay of Fundy! Today, on a special charter with absolutely beautiful weather for this time of year, we had a new humpback whale, this is Spinnaker you see below. Spinnaker is a female humpback born in 2004 and she was reported earlier this season off the coast of Maine.



Our Scout Boat was out today to help us look for whales and also take some photographs but I snapped this one of John! This is Mustache, a juvenile male humpback whale who we also saw today. While John was out on the Scout Boat searching a bit more he also reported EKG and Cork, 2 humpbacks we are familiar with at Quoddy Link Marine. Thanks so much for checking in today. I'll keep posting as long as I have new info to post so check back often. I'll make sure to have an "End of Season" recap in the near future as well!

Another day with Arrowhead

Hello all, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link Marine. We had another great trip today, and one that we were not sure if we were going to be able to get in due to the forecasted weather. We did make our way off Southern Wolf and found Arrowhead, a male humpback whale first sighted in 1976. He's a very large humpback and great to see. We always seem to get some great looks at him and today was no different. Especially with the sun today we were able to clearly see his long, white pectoral flippers at his side which are visible in the photo below.

On the photos above and below you can slightly see a rainbow in the blow (or exhale). The photo on the very bottom, the rainbow that is there is from the moisture from his blow. Thanks for checking in today. I don't know how tomorrow will turn out, with thunderstorm and gale-force wind warnings......I'll make sure to keep you posted.

Arrowhead and Mustache, another great day!

Hello everyone, it's Danielle with another update from Quoddy Link Marine. We had a great trip today, and nice to get it in before we get some serious fall winds over the next few days. With the help of Matt on our Scout Boat (left) we made our way out to South Wolf where we found Mustache (below). Mustache is a juvenile male humpback we have been watching for 2 years now. After spending some time with him we made our way about 3 miles, towards Grand Manan, where Matt had found us another humpback whale. This time it was Arrowhead, an adult male first sighted in 1976! After spending some time with him we started to make our way back to St. Andrews but we did make time to stop with a minke whale, a bald eagle and some harbour seals on our way!!

Below is a video of Arrowhead Melanie, one of our naturalists, took yesterday.

Thanks for checking in today! The season isn't over yet so keep checking for more updates.

What a BIG Boy!

Hello everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link Marine back from a great fall day on the Bay of Fundy. We left for our 1:30 departure and headed out into the Grand Manan Channel where we found 3 fin whales. It was great to spend some time with these enormous whales but at the same time we were wondering where our humpbacks were. So John, our owner and captain, decided to run us off towards the Wolves, an archipelago of islands in the open Bay of Fundy. As we were approaching we saw a blow and quickly saw it was a humpback but when we arrived I was so happy with who I saw....it was Arrowhead, a humpback we saw for the first time last week! Arrowhead was first sighted in 1976 which puts him at at least 31 years old! And he is BIG! Below is a photograph I took today of his fluke.

I've left you with a photo below of Arrowhead, that is Campobello Island way in the background. Our season is quickly coming to a close with our last scheduled whale watch on October 14th at 1:30 pm so come and join us and experience the Bay of Fundy....Catamaran style!

Hello everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link Marine. Sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days I'm just a bit under the weather and I will be keeping this one short but I wanted to make sure that I kept you all posted on our sightings. The season continues to be great even as the end draws more near. We have been seeing both humpback and fin whales on the almost every departure. The weather has been true to autumn on the Bay of Fundy with quite a bit of wind but nothing too strong to keep us in the harbour. Below is a photograph I took today of Cork, a 5 year-old female humpback whale.

This is Mustache, a juvenile male humpback. He even treated our passengers a few days ago with a tail thrash (whipping his tail and 1/2 his body right out of the water).

Well....thanks for checking in and I will keep you posted on our sightings for the rest of the week. I've left you with a photo of a grey seal we saw yesterday off Black Rock.

A Breezy October Day on the Bay of Fundy

Hello everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link Marine with an update from today's whale watch. It was a breezy fall day but with a well educated guess on where to start our search and some luck we found Cork (below), a 5 year old female humpback whale around the Owen Basin this afternoon. We also found a large fin whale but it was difficult to get a good look with the 4-5 foot breaking sea. On our way back to St. Andrews we stopped at a familiar herring weir (a fish trap for wild herring) off the northern tip of Campobello Island, NB and found a very small minke whale trapped inside. We had heard reports of the little one and were not surprised to see him still there. Large whale rescue has been informed and they are monitoring the situation but it is not a life threatening place for a minke whale to be (there is lots of herring to eat inside!). A close eye will be kept on the minke whale and if he doesn't swim out very soon the net surrounding the weir will be lowered at high tide and whale rescue will be called to the scene.
Thanks so much for checking in today and keep checking for the last of our updates as our 2007 season is nearing the end!

I'd like to introduce ARROWHEAD!

Hi everyone, I just got our humpback identified from our trip yesterday afternoon (October 2nd at 1:30pm) and I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce Arrowhead. This is an adult male humpback whale of unknown age but first seen in 1976, which, if you add up, puts him at at least 31 years old!
The scar that I photographed yesterday is not diagnostic of any particular incident, but he does have entanglement-related injuries. Thanks to everyone who joined us on our first ever Arrowhead sighting!

New Humpback Whale! I DO love my job!

Hey everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link back from another fantastic fall day on the Bay of Fundy. Today we had the pleasure of adding a new humpback whale to our 2007 list which brings our count to 21 for the season! We spotted this humpback just off South Wolf Light, and he certainly caught out attention by doing 2 full breaches and then waving his very long, white pectoral flippers in the air. This all happened over 1/2 mile away but everyone was so excited. When we got a closer look Melanie and myself quickly realized it was a new humpback whale. It's so exciting to see a new whale out there and discovering who they are and it is probably my favorite part of my job. We also quickly noticed that this was a big humpback, at least 40-45 feet long, much larger than the humpbacks we have been watching for most of the season.
Here is the dorsal fin of our new humpback whale. There is also a scar on the tail stock that could be from any number of incidents including entanglement, ship strike or a battle scar from the mating grounds.

Just as we were about to start making our way back to St. Andrews our unknown humpback gave us what is probably the most beautiful tail raise I have seen in my 6 years with Quoddy Link Marine. He just started to raise his tail slowly then arched so high and brought not only his fluke but his entire caudal region out of the water. Below is a photo sequence of this dive.

I have these pictures into Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies for identification and I will make sure to let you know as soon as I hear something! I also wanted to mention, for those bird lovers out there, today we had our first official sighting of white-winged scoters in Passamaquoddy Bay. Thanks for checking in today!!

How is it October??

Hello everyone, it's Danielle again with Quoddy Link Marine. I can't possibly understand how it is already the 1st of October! We had a great day today to kick off the month. The photo on the left of a majestic bald eagle I took this morning on our charter. This afternoon we made our way into the Grand Manan Channel and found a fin whale (not before stopping amongst the islands with 2 minke whales) and a humpback. Mustache, a male humpback we have become very fond of at Quoddy, was great to watch today, with lots of tail lobbing and even some full breaches (the full breaching was at a distance). Below is a photo of Mustache I took today.

Well, thanks for checking in, and stay tuned for more updates as our season comes to a close.

Right Whale Videos

Below are a few videos that Melanie, one of our naturalists took on our special trip out to see the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale! GREAT JOB Mel!

Below is a clip of a right whale raising it's flukes then rolling over, note the large, triangular shape of the fluke.

Below is a beautiful terminal dive from a mature right whale.

This last clip is of a mom and calf fluking together. Watch when the mom lowers her tail she is actually touching the calf!

Again, thanks to all who joined us, it really was an amazing experience to spend so much time with these whales. I do love my job!