Saturday, July 30, 2011

Some photos to share

Hello everyone, I just wanted to do a quick post and share some phots from a few days ago.  On July 28th we had an amazing encouter with a very large basking shark and on the same trip we also got to see bald eagles fish for mackerel and I wanted to share some photos.




We have been seeing both minke whales and fin whales over the past few days as well as seals, bald eagles and many seabirds.

Below are fin whale shots taken on July 27th



Thanks so much for checking in

Cheers,
Danielle

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Special morning with finback whales

Hello everyone, I just wanted to share this video with you that I took yesterday morning.  It was SO calm, the Bay felt like a pond and we went offshore and spent some time with 8 fin whales off Whale Cove, Grand Manan.  It was a trip to remember.



We have been seeing fin whales in shore as well starting yesterday afternoon, great news for the days where the wind in stronger.  We were able to spend time with the mother and calf fin whale pair as well who we were seeing a few weeks ago, so great to see them again.

Thanks so much for checking in,

Cheers,
Danielle

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Amazing Finback Sightings on both trips

Hello everyone, I am sorry that it has been so long since I have posted.  It has been a frustrating few weeks with weather (fog and wind) and whales.  We have been seeing minke whales on most trips, confined to the Islands due to weather but there have been a few trips where we have not seen whales (if whales are not sighted our passengers have the choice of 1/2 their money back or a free pass that never expires to come out again with us).  Well, today the weather was on our side and John took advantage of that and took us right offshore in search of fin whales and on both out 10am and 2 pm trip we certainly found what we were looking for!

These photos are from our 10 am trip, we found 2 fin whales.





And these photos are from our 2pm trip, we found 4 fin whales together and at least another 1 we could see closer to Grand Manan





Thanks so much for checking in, hopefully the weather will stay good for us and we will be able to continue going offshore,

Cheers,
Danielle

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Whale sightings from the past few days

Hello Everyone, I hope you are all well and I am sorry for the lack of posts the past few days but I wanted to share some pictures of everything we have been seeing.
This is a photo from July 5th on our evening cruise of the mother and calf fin whale pair who have been in the area.  You can see the white, lower right jaw of the calf as the little one surfaces....and mom is in behind.


On July 6th we saw Slice, a minke whale who is missing most of it's dorsal fin for the first time this season!


On July 8th I had the day off but Matt, Jolinne and Nick had a very special trip with a minke whale who decided to breach over 30 times!  Below are a few shots that Nick wanted to share.




This is a minke whale we sighted off Campobello Island on July 9th on our 2pm departure.  Every minke whale had a uniquely shaped dorsal fin like this one, note the small notches out of the trailing edge.


Here are 2 pictures I took this morning (July 10) of the mom and calf fin whale pair.  The top photo you can see the pair travelling together and the bottom photo is mom's terminal dive.



I also wanted to share some seal photos from our 10am trip today.




Thanks so much for checking in....and don't forget to join our facebook page for even more updates and interesting links,

Cheers,
Danielle

Saturday, July 02, 2011

2 Trips with Finbacks

Hello everyone, what a great day we had....beautiful weather, great whales and fantastic passengers....we really can't ask for anything more.
Today on both our 10am and 2pm trips we made our way off Blacks Harbour and spent time with finback whales (4 in the am and 3 in the afternoon).  On both trips were we able to see the mom and calf pair that that has been in the area for the past little while.

Here you can see the lower right jaw of a fin whale, note that it is white and if the whale was swimming in the opposite direction you would not be able to see this.  You can also see the "blaze", the white swirl-like marks behind the blowhole which are unique to each whale.


This whale we saw a lot on our afternoon, note the unique dorsal fin and the white scar-like mark on the back.  Both would be used for ID


This is the calf who was swimming on it's own a bit today and even started to show some playful barrel rolls in the afternoon and bringing part of it's tail out of the water.


We had a few close approaches and here you can see a fin whale swimming towards the boat, the wood railing is from the upper deck and the heads on the bottom of the picture are from the new foredeck.


We had a few curious seals in the morning while we were watching whales.  The top photo below is a young harbour seal and the other is a female grey seal....she is OK, she is just stretching her neck backwards and looking down into the water....their eyes are on the tops of their heads so they have to flip over to look down.


We stopped at Whitehorse as well and saw some herring gull chicks....they are so sweet.


We also had an amazing eagle sighting, we saw one adult fly up to a nest and you could hear the young eaglets calling and then we found the mated pair close by.


Thanks for checking in....we are hoping the fog holds off for tomorrow,

Cheers,
Danielle

Friday, July 01, 2011

A new Quoddy Link for our 2011 season

Hey everyone, I was able to get out on our Scout Boat today to take some photos of the renovations that were done to the Quoddy Link over the past winter....check it out...


The enlarged upper deck is fantastic and allows for more seating up top. the new foredeck is wonderful and I am falling in love with it more and more each and every day and the lower deck still has windows that open and close (you don't want to watch whales through a window) and there is still a heater too!  And the new hull design means that she is more stable than ever...come on down to St. Andrews for a visit and check it out for yourself.



HAPPY CANADA DAY EVERYONE

Cheers,
Danielle