Finbacks and FOG!!

Hello everyone, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link Marine with some sightings to report from the past 2 days. The fog is still hanging around but our success rate with whales is still 100%, mostly because of a lot of patience, persistence and with the help of our Scout Boat. Yesterday and today we saw finback whales on all of our departures, and yesterday morning we also saw 2 minke whales. The photos below are of 2 different finback whales that we saw yesterday and today. We can tell one finback from another by the shape of their dorsal fin but this is just the quick and dirty way and isn't completely accurate. The way that researchers tell the difference is by unique markings called chevrons and the blaze, both of which are white, swirl-like markings on the back of the finback whale. They also look for unique scaring on the dorsal fin, flanks and the caudal peduncle (where the body meets the tail). To have a 100% positive ID a researcher usually needs 8 photographs of the whale, 4 from the left and 4 from the right hand side and all must be taken on a terminal dive (a dive where the whale arches it's back higher). The photos below are both showing terminal dives.

Thanks for checking in, I'm hoping the fog will go away very soon but I will make sure to keep you posted on all our sightings.