Fin whales, Mola mola, puffins...great trips on the water

Hello everyone, I thought I would share some pics from the past few days...

From August 27, here is the curious minke whale we saw that goes with the video I posted.

Today we had some great finback sightings in the morning

You can see the mouth is open, the black is the baleen 

This afternoon we saw a Mola mola, or ocean sunfish!  This is only my 3rd sighting in 11 years and it was a great sighting today. Here is some info on the ocean sunfish

 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 Through the course of evolution their caudal fin (tail) has disappeared and been replaced by a pseudo-fin called a clavus.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.

And of course, some birds too.

Puffins anyone?

I wanted to share some seal pictures from the past few days as well

Pre fight....

Post fight

Harbour and a young grey seal

Look who we saw!!

Thanks so much for checking in today,
Cheers,
Danielle

Curious mink whale

Hello everyone, we were confined to the protection of the Islands for most of the day yesterday thanks to a strong SW wind (we did sneak off a little in the morning and get some looks at a finback but the wind quickly breezed up).  We did spent time on both trips with Slice, a minke whale as well as 2 other minke whales in the afternoon.  And on our 2pm trip we did have that curiosity returned from a minke whale and Nick managed to get some more underwater video.....check it out



It is not common to have a minke whale be this curious in a boat, he was also incredible curious with the schooner out of Eastport Maine.  It's so incredible when this happens and everyone on board was as fascinated as we were.

Cheers,
Danielle

Welcome Back CORK

Hello everyone, well, I had an emotional day today....I got to see Cork, my very favorite humpback whale (I have been watching her every season since 2004)!  She was traveling this morning with a young whale named Labyrinth, the 2008 calf of Baja.

Labyrinth

Cork

Labyrinth

This afternoon the wind picked up and we did take a little run to the east but settled back in the Islands where it was warm and protected where we spent time and got some incredible looks at Slice, a minke whale.

This evening the wind died out some and we headed off Blacks Habour where we saw Cork again and around 4-5 finbacks.

Cork

It was a great day!

Thanks to everyone who joined,
Cheers,
Danielle

Simply FIN-tastic

Today was FIN-tastic with lunge feeding fin whales on both our afternoon and evening departures.  Even though there was no lunge feeding this morning we did see a number of finbacks as well as a few minke whales and a young humpback was breached once, with zero warning, and was relatively uncooperative the rest of the time (I was not able to get an ID on the humpback).

This is the humpback we saw on our 10am trip

FIN-tastic FIN whales

fin whale tail after a lunge

Fin whale tail after a lunge feed

The seabirds continue to amazing

Northern gannet

sooty shearwater

Of course....SEALS

female grey in front and a rather happy harbour in the back

Female grey seal I adore, look at that red head 

 Cheers,
Danielle :)
 

Fierce Fundy Fog!

Hello everyone, well, that Bay of Fundy fog came back something fierce today but it didn't stop us.  We spent time on both departures today with finbacks and minke whales.  On our 10am departure we got a very brief look at a humpback tail but the fog settled back in as the tide began to flood and we couldn't relocate him with the strong SW winds.

Slice, a minke whale 

Hawk we saw on Pendletons Island (Nick IDed as a red-tailed)

harbour seal

a red-headed female grey.....I am in LOVE 

Thanks for checking in today :)

Cheers,
Danielle

Full day with Finbacks

Good evening all, we had another full day with fin whales..and full and wonderful day.

The seabird sightings continue to be incredible this season.  Check out Nicks Bird Blog for more info.

And seals...of course we stopped with seals today.

Thanks for checking in tonight,

Cheers,
Danielle