Powerful winds and whales!

Hello everyone, Danielle here with Quoddy Link Marine....a little wind blown and a little salty from the Bay of Fundy but happy to report great Labour Day Monday trips. We did have some wind today, 15-20 knots of SouthWest which made the offshore area unreachable all day (it is offshore where we have to go to typically search for humpback whales). The weatehr today also gave our passengers a real appreciation to how different the temperature is onshore compared to on the water (PLEASE bring you layers!!) Our morning departure took us between Whitehorse and Campobello Island with a pair of powerful finback whales. They were charging around, at one point doing more than 15 knots! When they would surface there would be a huge wall of white water...they would almost porpoise right out of the water. Above you can see the lower right, white jaw of one of the finback whales. Finbacks have one of the greatest displays of asymmetrical colouring in the animal kingdom, there lower left jaw is the same colour as their back (a coppery brown) but their lower right jaw is right. Below is a surface from one of the finbacks and at this point they were travelling at about 11 knots.

Our afternoon trip took us out through the islands and with a call from a fellow St. Andrews whale watcher we heard that they we watching the small humpback whale that we had yesterday! It is very unusual to have a humpback whale this close to St. Andrews and I was very pleased to hear because I didn't get a chance to see the little one yesterday. We did get a few looks at the humpback whale, "she" wasn't the easiest to watch, with the high winds and an average dive time of over 10 minutes we only got a few looks but enough to get some decent dorsal fin pictures (below). And today was no different, "she" never raised her tail! Also, while we were waiting for the young humpback to resurface we had the pleasure of watching over 100 northern gannets, in all stages of plumage, plunge diving into the Bay after herring! It was incredible, they really are amazing to see! After the last surface with the humpback whale we did get a chance to spend some time with a minke whale in Head Harbour Passage off Wilsons Beach, Campobello Island.

Thanks for checking in today. I have the day off tomorrow but I might get out on the Scout Boat. Keep in touch to see everything Quoddy!