AND....Thank You PARACHUTE and HOBO!

Well, we had 2 trips today, August 24th, that we were able to get offshore to see humpbacks (the wind picked up in the afternoon but we had some great close encounters with a large finback whale).

On our 10:00 am trip we have the pleasure of watching Parachute be VERY active. This does not happen on every trip. Humpbacks do breach a lot but the odds that it happens during every departure is very rare.

Here you can clearly see Parachutes ventral pleats. The grooves allow expansion so when "he" feeds this area can expand and he can take a huge gulp of water in and filter that water, getting more food with just one mouthful. This makes them more efficient feeders.

On our evening trip Hobo continued our amazing lucky streak. He breached and lob tailed for about 10 minutes, so amazing to see.

Thanks for checking the updates, keep in touch for more.

Thank You SONOGRAM!

Well, what a day August 23rd was. It started off with a morning and an afternoon trip offshore by Eastern Wolf spent with humpbacks. In the afternoon we were treated to a close encounter by Quarternote (right) and Repeat traveling side by side.

The came the 5:30 departure. We were traveling east and we could see a humpback whale breaching in the distance. When we arrived we discovered it was a new whale we had just seen the day before (now known to be Sonogram, the 2004 calf of PeeDee). Sonogram continued to breach for over an hour and was still breaching when we had to leave for St. Andrews because twilight was approaching and it was an hour ride home. What a trip, such a priveledge and a very rare sight.

The fluke of Sonogram.









A flipper slap at sunset.

I'd like to introduce....

Here are some whales we have seen in the last few days that I have recently learned the identities...

Repeat (seen on Aug. 20th 10:00; Aug. 21st 10:00 & 2:00; Aug. 22nd 10:00 & 2:00; Aug. 23rd 2:00)








Godzilla (seen on Aug. 22 10:00; Aug. 23rd 2:00; Aug. 24th 5:30)










Sonogram (seen on Aug. 22nd 2:00, Aug. 23rd 5:30)








Quarternote (seen on Aug. 22nd 10:00; Aug 23rd 10:00, 2:00)

3 new humpbacks!!

Well, despite some winds in various directions we have been able to travel out to the eastern end of the Wolves for the past 2 days and spend some time with humpback whales. Today we had 3 new whale sightings! I will make sure to let you know their identities when I learn them myself.

I believe this is Quarternote, but I have to have that confirmed.

Keep in touch, everyday is different, you never know what or who we may see.

Some weather and humpback whales

The past 2 days have come with some weary forecasts but we have managed to get some great trips in. On Saturday, August 19th, on the 10:00 am trip we made our way north-east of Eastern Wolf and found 4 humpback whales in a hole in the fog: Parachute (image on the left), Hobo, and 2 yet to be identified. The afternoon and evening trip we remained in the shelter of Campobello Island and watched minke and finback whales.

The forecast today was for strong easterly winds and thunder storms, neither of which materialized. We spent our 10:00 am and 2:00 pm trip off Eastern Wolf with 2 humpbacks yet to be identified in the morning and Hobo and Parachute in the afternoon.


I'll keep you posted on the identity of the unknown humpbacks, stay tuned.

5 humpbacks!!!

Hello, it's Danielle, senior naturalist and photographer with Quoddy Link Marine. We have had 2 great days with humpbacks. 5 humpbacks both yesterday and today, 3 of which are new individuals. Humpbacks are identified by the black and white pigmentation on the underside of their fluke as well as the shape of their dorsal fin.
Hobo, a whale we have seen many times this summer, as well as in 2005.

A new whale, yet to be identified. This humpbacks tail has a very unique shape with both edges of the fluke turning up and is very stiff.

Parachute, a whale we have become very familiar with over the past few weeks. We have seen Parachute every year since 2003.

Another new individual with an almost all black tail. "His" dorsal fin is very rounded.

The third new individual, with a black tail with a few special white spots. This humpbacks dorsal fin has a hooked shape, so it is easily distinguished from the humpback directly above.

As soon as I get a positive identification on the humpbacks I will let you know. Below you can see 2 pictures of Hobo and the Quoddy Link taken today while I was out on our scout boat. Keep checking back for more updates.

Parachute and finback whales!

We've had a great few days out on the water. On August 12th and the 13th we had both finback and humpback whales. The whales have been great lately but the species and number we see on every departure varies. Wildlife always changes, that's one of the things I love about my job. Above you can see a pair of finback whales traveling together. This is a special sight because baleen whales are not always seen in pairs or larger groups. They do not form close associations the way that toothed whales do, and the associations they do form for feeding and traveling and usually short-lived. Below you can see a few pictures taken from our 5:30 trip on August 13th. Parachute, a humpback whale we have been seeing quite often spent about 15 minutes slapping the surface of the water with his tail. Such a priveledge to see and it certainly doesn't happen on every trip.

Well, they are calling for some bad weather tomorrow but I will keep you posted on our sightings.

Parachute and light north west winds

Hello there, it's Danielle, senior naturalist and photographer with Quoddy Link Marine. We had a great day with Parachute, a humpback we have seen every year since 2003 on all three trips. We also saw 2 finback whale on our 10:00 am trip, and a minke whale on both our 2:00 pm and 5:30 pm trips. The day was clear and light NW winds, you couldn't have asked for a better whale watching day on the Bay of Fundy.

Some offshore fog but 3 great trips

It's Danielle, senior naturalist and photographer with Quoddy Link Marine. We had a very nice day on the water. On our morning and afternoon trips we had offshore fog and in the afternoon we also had strong SW winds against and ebb tide creating a choppy sea. We had 3 minke whales on both trips in Head Harbour Passage where it's protected and calm and we had many great sightings. On our evening trip (picture shown here, beautiful lighting and the rain didn't start until we returned back to St. Andrews) we had a finback whale inshore, off White Island. The passenger here is on the upper deck waiting for a finback whale to surface.
This is the finback whale we had in the evening. It's a whale we have seen before, the dorsal fin looks familiar. They are calling for good weather tomorrow and I will keep you posted on our sightings

Back from a few days away...

Hello everyone, sorry for the lack of posts over the past few days, I was on vacation. Today was a great day on the water. On our 10:00 am trip we had a minke and a finback right in Head Harbour Passage. On the 2:00 pm trip the same finback had made its way to the south eastern edge of Campobello Island and we also saw a few minke whales. On our evening trip we had a "hat trick" seeing all 3 species of whales we commonly see in our section of the Bay of Fundy: minke, finback and a humpback whale. I wasn't on the evening trip but the whale was tentatively ID'd as Hobo, but I will keep you posted. I don't have any pictures from today, today was the day when I put my camera down and just watched the whales. I make myself do that once in a while just to make sure I don't spend my entire summer looking through my camera.

On August 4th we made a very special trip about 35 miles south in search on the incredibly rare North Atlantic Right Whale. We left at 7:30 am and with the help of our Scout Boat (which left at 5:30 am) we reached a large group of right whales in just under 2 hours. There are only about 350 individual North Atlantic right whales left in the world and a large part of that population comes to the mouth of the Bay of Fundy to feed, nurse their young and court.

Here you can see the high arch of the lower jaw and the callosities (the roughened patches of skin) on the whales head. These callosites are unique to each whale and help ID individuals.

Their pectoral flippers are spatulate shaped.

Here is a pair of right whales that were very active at the surface, rolling over and around each other. At this time of the year right whales can been seen in SAG's, surface active groups. Right whales mate and court in large numbers with their reproductive strategy based on sperm competition. One of the right whales "claim to fame" is that testes of the male weigh up to 1 ton combined, the largest in the animal kingdom.

The large, smooth, deeply-notched tail is distinct and helps make the right whale easy to identify. They also have no dorsal fin, callosities on the head and a tall, V-shaped blow.

We may end up doing another right whale trip in September, so I will keep you posted. I plan on taking my camera out tomorrow, and I will let you all know what we are seeing.

Another amazing day with humpbacks

Another day with good visibility and amazing whales. Our morning trip took us out into the open Bay of Fundy, west of the Wolves Bank. With the help of our scout boat we were able to spend some more time with Hobo, a humpback we had seen yesterday. And again today, at the change of the tide, Hobo became very active with full and partial breaches. This behaviour is a special sight and certainly isn't seen on every departure, we have just had 2 very special trips. On our afternoon trip we were surprised to find a pair of humpbacks, Cork and Parachute, traveling together at the mouth of Head Harbour Passage. It is very rare to see humpbacks this far inshore. On our evening trip we followed that pair out to the Wolves, where humpbacks are more commonly seen. Hopefully the season continues like this, keep checking for more updates.