Minkes and Fins and Fog

Hey everyone, I just wanted to share a quick update on our sightings from yesterday. We spent time with a minke whale on our 2:00 pm departure (even had a partial breach!) and a large finback off East Quoddy on the evening trip. Below are 2 photos from yesterday.




We also took a run up the Campobello shoreline during the afternoon and we saw a small group of puffins. Alcids, including puffins, are diving birds and use their wings to fly under the water.




I'm back to work tomorrow, check back for more updates!
Cheers,
Danielle

Minke whales, a finback and an interview with CBC

Hey everyone, what a gorgeous day we had on the water! Our morning trip we spent in Head Harbour Passage with 3 minke whales, got some great looks....we even got to see the white bands on the pectoral flippers, affectionately referred to as "minke mittens".

Our afternoon departure took us up the Campobello shoreline pass Nancy's Head into the Grand Manan Channel as we followed a finback whale. The series of photos below show a terminal dive, the last dive in a series of shallower dives.






This morning I did a short interview with Chris Corday from CBC regarding Quoddy Link's contribution to Art MacKay's blog I love Quoddy WILD!. Below is a photo of all 3 of us in front of the Quoddy Link. It's great to be a part of I Love Quoddy WILD, and share our sightings with the readers.


Hopefully the nice weather continues tomorrow!
Cheers,
Danielle

Fin whales, minkes, LOTS of porpoise...what a great day

Hey everyone, it's Danielle back from another great day on the water. We had some fog this morning but after that cleared we had some great whale sightings.

This morning we spent time with a minke whales between Campobello and Deer Island and then on the way home through Western Passage we stopped with a very large group of harbour porpoise. They were all feeding just on the edge of the Old Sow. There were lots of gulls there as well. The 2 photos below are from this morning, you can see a herring in the mouth of the gull. Also note the single blowhole, or nostril, on the porpoise (this is a trait of all toothed whales).



On our afternoon and evening departure we saw both minke and finback whales in Head Harbour Passage. What a great day!



Tomorrow morning I am doing an interview with CBC regarding our contribution to the I Love Quoddy WILD Blog, I will let you know how that goes.

Cheers,
Danielle

Whale Watching in the Old Sow

Hello everyone, just a quick note on todays trip. With thick fog in the morning we had only one departure today at 2:00 pm. We found a fin whale in the Passage off Black Rock but only got a few looks and then he took off into the fog. We traveled up and down Head Harbour Passage looking for another whale and then we got a call from a fellow whale watcher out of St. Andrews, Fundy Tide Runners that they had a minke whale in the Old Sow, in Western Passage between Deer Island and Eastport, ME. The Old Sow is the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western hemisphere and runs hardest at 3 hours before high tide. We made our way there and what a great trip it turned out to be. There was so much life there, with many harbour porpoise and birds feeding in the same area, it was fantastic. Thanks to all the passengers that came out today who were hearty and were trusting as we took them out into the thick Bay of Fundy Fog!

Thanks for checking in,
Cheers,
Danielle

A cool July day

Hey everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link back from a very cool July day on the water. On our 10:00 am departure we ventured offshore with no reports of fin whales around the islands. We traveled out to Southern Wolf and on the edge of the Owen Basin but we didn't see any finbacks. We spotted a minke whale off Head Harbour Island and "he" turned out to be very co-operatve and we got some great looks.

Our afternoon trip took us off Nubble Island where we spent some time with a fin whale. At first the whale was making some big moves and staying down a long time but with a little patience we managed to get some good sightings. The photo below is from today, Whitehorse Island is in the background.


We have been seeing lots of seals on every trip and I wanted to share 2 pictures from today of some hauled-out harbour seals.




They are calling for some weather tomorrow so we will have to see what happens then. Thanks for checking in,
Cheers,
Danielle

EKG sighted in the Bay of Fundy!

Hey everyone. One thing I want to do is keep all of the regular reader of the Quoddy Link blog up to date on the humpback whales that we regularly see in our little part of the Bay of Fundy and I have some news! EKG was seen on the Brier Island side of the Bay of Fundy by our friends at Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises. I photographed EKG in 2006 as an unknown and he or she has been seen in our part of the Bay every season since. Hopefully EKG and others we know well will make their way into our part of the Bay soon....

More great fin whale sightings

Hey there everyone, Danielle from Quoddy Link back from a full day on the water. We spent time with fin whales on all 3 of our departures today (this AM we did take a run offshore in search of humpback whales with our Scout Boat but none yet...but you never know unless you look).

I took another video of the fin whales on the 5:30 pm departure, we were at the mouth of Head Harbour Passage and it was a gorgeous evening on the water.



We also had fin whales on all 3 trips on July 15th, another great full day on the water. We are also seeing lots of seals, both grey and harbour, bald eagles and harbour porpoise.

Thanks for checking in today!

Cheers,
Danielle

Amazing Fin Whales off East Quoddy Head Light

Hey everyone. We had such an amazing trip yesterday afternoon off of the entrance to Head Harbour Passage with finback whales. There were 3 individuals that we got to see, many times. We spent over an hour with the whales and it was amazing! I got some video today that I wanted to share with you. All of the videos were shot from the upper deck, in one you can see the railing of the boat and you can see me walking across the upper deck, we were so lucky and they whales came so close.

I also got some video of harbour porpoise, these guys are fast so the video is not very long but I hope you enjoy it. The second part you can see the porpoise under the water, it's a great view on the upper deck on a sunny day


I also got some photos from todays morning departure (I took this afternoons trip to just watch the whales otherwise I spend my entire season looking through my viewfinder, it's nice to have the chance to to just take it all in). Today there were a number of fin whales off Bliss and Black's Harbour on the flood tide.



Thanks for checking in today!
Cheers,
Danielle

10 fin whales counted within a 2 mile radius!

Hey everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link Marine back from a long but great day on the water. We had fin whales on each of our 3 trips today and all 3 were fantastic (despite some morning fog). On our evening trip were were off the entrance to Head Harbour Passage and within a 2 mile radius of East Quoddy Head Light we counted 10 fin whales! Definitley a great day!

Below are some photos from today I wanted to share.






Thanks for checking in today! We will have to see what the weather will bring for tomorrow...

Great Fin Whale Sightings Including a Cow/Calf Pair!

Hey everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link Marine. We had another great day on the water with finbacks, and we saw a cow/calf pair today as well! Our morning trip took us towards Blacks Harbour on the flood and there were at least 6 finbacks in the area all actively feeding on herring (this female grey seal was watching us while we were watching the whales). John, captain and owner of Quoddy Link, was picking up herring on his fish finder from the surface 200 feet down. We saw the cow and calf pair in the morning but the calf was spending quite a bit of time on it's own while the adults were feeding.


Below is a shot of the cow/calf pair. Mom is on the right and she has a very distinct notch out of her dorsal.


Here you can see the white lower right jaw that is characteristic of fin whales.


On our afternoon trip we saw the cow/calf pair again, this time in Head Harbour Passage. After spending some time with the whales moved over to Casco Bay Island to see some seals and this bald eagle was on one of the reefs.



Thanks so much for checking in today!

Cheers.

Great Fin Whale Sightings!

Hey all, I just wanted to give you a quick update on our sightings from today. We had finbacks on both trips, again, just off East Quoddy Head Light. On our evening departure we had a special sighting, there were 4 fin whales traveling side-by-side! Baleen whales, like fins, do not live in family groups so we don't often see them traveling together but to have 4 that were feeding and surfacing together was great. There was a 5th finback we could see blowing as well.



Thanks for checking in!
Cheers

Hey everyone, I just wanted to give you a quick update on today's sightings. We had finbacks on both departures in and at the mouth of Head Harbour Passage. In the pic below you can see Deer Island in the background.


Below is a shot of a herring weir, a local method for cathing herring (sardines). It's basically a trap where the herring swim in and then are unable to find their way back out.


We are seeing tonnes of seals around this year which is great. Below is a female grey seal, the larger of the 2 species of seals commonly found in the Bay of Fundy.


Thanks for checking in!

Cheers

Finback whales and NO FOG!

What a great day we had on the water! The sun was shining and there was no fog to be seen. It was also our first day that we had 3 departures and we saw finback whales on all 3! The whales were right off the entrance to Head Harbour Passage, only about 12 miles from St. Andrews so it was quick to get there and we were able to spend some time with them. There was a pair that was traveling together. On our AM trip we also followed a lone finback all the out to the Wolves but it was a little choppy that far offshore so we made our way towards Campobello Island.



The photo below shows the right hand side of a fin whale where the "blaze", the white from the lower right jaw extends over the head. The "chevron" markings are behind that. These markings are used for identification of individual fin whales.



Thanks so much for checking in, I wanted to leave you with this seal shot, the big seal in the middle is a male grey seal, the others are all harbour seals.

Still Foggy...but great minke whales today!

Hey everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link back from another foggy afternoon on the Bay. We went out again at 2pm into the thick fog, cruising up Head Harbour Passage, taking some time to visit with some harbour and grey seals and a grogeous pair of bald eagles (they looked a little grumpy, they too are tired off the fog) but it was just too foggy to search for whales. We got the word from a fellow whale watcher that there the fog was starting to lift in some parts of the Passage so we headed out to the tide rip off East Quoddy Head Light and watching some diving northern gannets and harbour porpoise and then in the chop we spotted a minke whale! It turned out to be a great sighting with some really close looks and as we were watching this minke another smaller minke whale showed up!



On the way home, back across Passamaquoddy Bay we brought out our Touch Tank and showed our passengers some of the amazing sealife that resides under the sea and in the intertidal zone. Below is a photo of me and a sea urchin.


Thanks so much for checking in....I'm sure you can guess what the forecast is for tomorrow....more fog!

First Finback Whale of the 2009 Season!

Hey Everyone, it's Danielle from Quoddy Link Marine. First I want to wish everyone a very Happy Canada Day!

Now, on to the whale watching sightings for today....we had our first finback sighting of the 2009 season today off Whitehorse Island. Finbacks are the second largest whale in the world and the largest we get in the Bay of Fundy. The power of these whales never ceases to amaze me. There is a photo below taken today at around 5:30pm. Our departure went a little long but all aboard thought the extra time spent was well worth it.


We also had a fantastic harbour porpopise sighting off Casco Bay Island, with about 15-20 porpoise travelling together and coming very close to the boat. There were even some cow-calf pairs.



For the birders out there we also stopped at Whitehorse Island and I wanted to share this photo of a nesting pair of black-legged kittiwakes. We also saw some northern gannets again at the mouth of Head Harbour Passage.


Thanks so much for checking in today! It is sunny and clear here in St. Andrews right now...hopefully the weather continues.

Enough fog already!

Hey everyone, it's Danielle again with Quoddy Link. Today we did get out on our 2pm departure and with some thinning fog and some blue sky showing through we thought we would make a little run up off Bliss light, not before spending about 20 minutes with a young minke whale (only about 10 feet long). We made our way over, the fog thickened, but with calm seas we shut our engines off and started to listen....large whales, like finbacks, you can hear blow (exhale) over a mile away. We listened for about 5 minutes but didn't hear anything but you never know unless you "look". We made our way over to Whitehorse Island, a bird nesting site and were very happy to see a huge number of black-legged kittiwakes! After spending some time with the birds we went up to Head Harbour Passage and watched a few minke whales, adult sized this time! We made our way back to St. Andrews through Western Passage and the Old Sow (the largest tidal whirlpool in the Western Hemisphere). All in all it was a great trip!


Thanks for checking in today, tomorrow is Canada Day, eh! I hope we get some nice weather!

Fog, fog go away!

Hey everyone. Well, it's still foggy here in St. Andrews but we were able to get out on the water today at 2pm. We had a very nice sighting of atleast 2 (maybe 3) minke whales. On our way to Head Harbour Passage we stopped with 2 adult bald eagles on Nubble Island, a great sighting! We spent some time with the seals on the reefs off Casco Bay Island and also saw quite a few harbour porpoise. We have also been seeing quite a variety of seabirds in the inshore area and today we saw a puffin, a storm petrel, a group of Northern gannets and a small group of greater shearwaters! All of those birds off the entrance to Head Harbour Passage is a great sign that there is lots of food in the area....now if only the fog will lift!

Thanks for checking in.

Minke and Fundy Fog

Hey all, it's Danielle with Quoddy. I just wanted to give you a quick update on today's trip. We had a nice afternoon whale watch, the fog again pushed off enough (with the help of a little wind) and cleared Head Harbour Passage. We saw atleast 3 individual minke whales (there may have been 4 in the area). We also had some interesting bird sightings....we saw a good number of northern gannets (both mature and immature), a puffin and a storm petrel! These birds are here because there is food to eat, has to be a good sign and hopefully when the fog clears we can start to explore some of the offshore areas.

Thanks for checking in today!

The 2009 season has officially begun!

Hello everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link Marine back for another season on the Bay of Fundy. I arrived in St. Andrews and we saw nothing but heavy rain for 3 days but we got out on the water today and had a great whale watch this afternoon (the fog cleared just enough for us in Head Harbour Passage). We saw 2 individual minke whales (there was a 3rd a little further up Head Harbour Passage).

We also saw lots of grey and harbour seals as well as a common murre sighting (pic below).

I will keep you posted on all of our sightings! You can follow us on Twitter, our tweets will keep you update on all of our sightings.