Finbacks and a FANTASTIC SURPRISE!

Hello, it's Danielle with Quoddy Link. What a great day. The whales we consistent and on all 3 trips we spent time with finback (left) and minke whales. The sightings were fantastic. Even on our evening departure, it rained but everyone stayed down below, nice and dry, and were treated to some very close encounters with a finback whale.


The surprise of the day came on our 2:00 trip where our guests had the privilege to see an ocean sunfish, Mola mola. It's my first sighting in 6 years and I was ecstatic! These bizarre looking fish, from the same family as pufferfish, average about 6 feet long and weigh 2200 lbs! The most obviously strange part is their shape, they look like a fish head without a tail. Through the course of evolution their caudal fin (tail) has disappeared and been replaced by a pseudo-fin called a clavus. Their diet consists mainly of jellyfish and to maintain their bulk they have to consume a very large amount. Ocean sunfish are covered in a slime instead of scales and they swim by a characteristic sculling motion of their dorsal and anal fins. They are the heaviest "bony" fish in the world, but its body is actually comprised of mostly cartilaginous tissues which is lighter than bone and can allow it to grow to such a large size which is uneconomical for other bony fishes. For more information on Mola mola visit "Ocean sunfish- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_sunfish



Thank You so much for checking in today on my very special post. Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or questions (danielle.m.dion@hotmail.com)