Friday, August 30, 2013

A FINtastic start to the long weekend

Good evening everyone, we had a great start to the long weekend spending time on all three trips with both minkes and finbacks

Here are some fin whale photos from today





This is one of the minkes we saw today


There were also lots of harbour porpoise around, seal as well and plenty of seabirds including some large groups of northern gannets.

Thanks for checking in today,

Cheers,
Danielle

Thursday, August 29, 2013

RIGHT ON!

Hello everyone, I have some very exciting news to share.  On all three trips yesterday we had the opportunity and privilege to spend time with North Atlantic right whale 3513 and her 2013 calf!  3513 is an eight year old female and this is her first calf.

Here are photos from the trips

The NEAq right whale research team out of Lubec

3513

NEAq right whale research team and 3513 and calf

3513

3513 and calf

3513 and calf

3513 and calf












calf of 3513

calf of 3513 stretching

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The North Atlantic right whale is critically endangered with an estimated world wide population of around 500 individuals.  There were 20 calves born into the population this past winter so to get the chance to spend time with a mom and calf right whale pair is pretty darn special.

I do want to mention that all of the photos have been cropped and edited.  The pair was traveling between American and Canadian waters and the regulations regarding right whales is very different in the 2 counties.  We always made sure we were being respectful of the mother and young calf and whale watching with a strong code of ethics.  Yesterday, as everyday, I am very proud to work for Quoddy Link and so very happy to have the captains we have!

Thanks to everyone who joined us on these special trips.

Cheers,
Danielle

Sunday, August 25, 2013

a FINtastic weekend

Good evening everyone, today was another wonderful day on the water out of St. Andrews with finbacks.  This rmoning and this afternoon we went right back offshore off South Wolf where we found the fin whales yesterday morning and they were there again today.  The most activity we saw was on our morning trip, about 2 hours into the flood tide. This evening we stayed inshore (ebb tide) and we saw 2 fin whales just inside Whitehorse.

Here are some photos I took today of the fin whales off South Wolf





There are three whales there, 2 tails partially out of the water and one dorsal fin



Check out the porpoise in the back




This afternoon on our way back to St. Andrews we stopped between the Islands where we found a group of porpoise and lots of gulls feeding on herring, I managed to grab this photo of a herring gull eating herring.


Thanks for checking in today and thanks to everyone who joined us today,

Cheers,
Danielle

Saturday, August 24, 2013

All about the finback

Good evening all, today was all about finback whales.  This morning and this afternoon we made our way off South Wolf where on the flood tide we found 6-7 large finbacks feeding.  Great to see that many whales in one area...we have not had a lot of that this season.












This evening the tide was on the ebb, and we knew from the later part of our afternoon trip that the fins had left the South Wolf area (in all different directions) so we stayed inshore with 2 fins just off Chatty's.  We also saw a few minke whales.


Thanks so much for checking in today,

Cheers,
Danielle

Friday, August 23, 2013

A FINtastic Friday

Good evening everyone, we had another FINtastic day on the water.

This morning we started with a sleepy finback inshore and then made our way towards Campobello where we saw 2 minke whales, including Slice.



We then decided to take a run offshore to see what we could find....we found three finbacks off South Wolf.  I photographed 2 of them and they are new to our area and we documented lots of food in the area.




This afternoon we decided to run right offshore to see those finbacks but we searched and no luck, we did see some puffins much to the delight of everyone on board.  So we made our way back off Green's Point Light and got some amazing looks at a fin whale inshore.


Thanks to everyone who joined,

Cheers,
Danielle