October 8, 2006: Fin whales and humpbacks have been pretty plentiful this fall, and we finished off the season today on a great note!  Our whale watchers were more northeast than usual, and inshore of Jeffreys Ledge. There were several fin whales around, along with two adult humpbacks, Fan, a female born in 1987, and Grommet (gender unknown), born in 1997.  Passengers aboard the Prince of Whales were lucky enough to see Grommet breach as they departed, while Grommet did a tail breach while passengers watched aboard the Atlantic Queen.

Just before they headed for home, passengers on the Atlantic Queen were surprised by the rare sighting of a northern right whale!  With only about 340 of these animals remaining, we were really excited by this sighting and it was a great way to end the season. We watched the whale from a good distance (boats are prevented from coming within 500 yards of a right whale due to their endangered status) and tried to get some identification photos before heading for home. 10/10 update: Dianna Schulte, our Research Coordinator, believes this right whale is a whale known as #1162 in the New England Aquarium Right Whale Catalog.  This animal is a male and was also seen last year.

Photos from today's trip (please contact us if you would like to purchase prints for a small donation):

Click on photos for a larger version

Humpback spouts	Fan	Fan
Grommet	Grommet	Grommet
Right whale	Right whale (note: cropped photo)	Right whale

September 15: We're down to mostly weekend whale watches, with a few weekdays. There have been lots of fin whales around lately, with a few humpbacks and minkes.  Most of the boats will only be doing whale watches through Columbus Day weekend. It's a great time of year for whale watching, with usually plentiful sightings on Jeffreys Ledge. Join us soon!

August 26: After a few days of nasty weather and slow sightings our trips have started to pick up again. Today we came across 2 fin whales one of which was a female named "Trigger".The other fin whale was doing a great deal of feeding close to the boat and almost everytime it came to the surface it had a mouthful of food! We also spotted a couple of minkes and we ended the trip with a pod of 30-40 Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

August 20: Trips were canceled today due to weather.

August 19: It has been an interesting couple days. Yesterday, despite choppy seas, we had a great pod of about 100 Atlantic white-sided dolphins and then found the humpbacks Valley and Shark on southern Jeffreys Ledge.  Today, none of the boats could find any whales on Jeffreys this afternoon, and there was only a fin whale in the morning.  However, a couple of our affiliate boats went to Stellwagen Bank in search of whales. Below is a report from our research coordinator, Dianna Schulte:

“Wow! What an amazing trip! Looking around the boat, we could see blows, and big splashes in all directions. We saw more whales than we could count!  The highlight was when Trident and her calf were leaping out of  the water over and over, and sometimes very close to the boat. Trident is one of our favorites- a 24-year-old whale who has been seen regularly by our staff for 11 years.  This is her 7^th known calf.”

Trident's calf	Trident
Lots of boat traffic on Stellwagen Bank	Trident and her calf

August 16: The whale watch season continues to be successful on Jeffreys Ledge! The trip started out with great looks at two fin whales. After doing some exploring we came across two large humpbacks, our adopt-a-whale Owl and another adult humpback named Crystal! We actually caught Owl resting or logging at the surface.  Then suddenly we were surrounded! For fifteen minutes Owl and Crystal spent their time only a few feet from the boat! It seems that these two humpbacks were very curious!  In addition to the excitement of seeing one of our favorite whales, Owl, it was great seeing Crystal, as he is one of the first recorded calves of Salt, who was the first whale identified by researchers! And we had beautiful weather to enjoy! Overall a fantastic trip! (see photos below provided by naturalist Julieanne Kearney)

August 10: We had another great day out on Jeffreys Ledge! The trip started out with looks at a large basking shark. Soon we came across a large fin whale and minke whale. We were also lucky enough to see a pod of 20 Atlantic white-sided dolphins! After that we came across two more fin whales and at least 5 minke whales!

August 8: The whale watch went well today! The trip started out slowly but we had a nice ending. We came upon 2 fin whales hanging out together. They were coming up and diving at the same time and we got some great looks at them. We saw three minkes and a basking shark. And then on the way home we saw the humpback Flask, who breached!

August 6: We had a great weekend of whale watching.  We spent time with an adult humpback named "Upsilon" today, and "Wy" and "Flask" were also in the area this weekend.  There were multiple fin whales and many minkes around, and we even saw a pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins!

July 30: "Flask" the humpback and "Ladder" the fin whale were back today on southern Jeffreys, along with several minke whales!

July 29: Things have really picked up on southern Jeffreys Ledge over the past week or two.  Today we had the first "grand slam" of the season - we saw all four species most common in our area!  We had a small pod of Atlantic white-sided dolphins, followed by sightings of several minke whales. Then we spent time with two of our favorite humpbacks, "Flask" and "Owl" (our adopt-a-whale!) and got great looks at two fin whales, one of which was Ladder (another adopt-a-whale!). We have one month left of full-time whale watching - join us soon!

June 25: Weather kept us at the dock most of this past week and weekend. Hopefully we'll be out more this week!

June 21: We've had some great trips!  This week there have been many large adult humpbacks, including some old favorites - Hercules (and her new calf), Shark, Half Moon, Fan and more. We've also seen our Adopt-a-Whale, Comet for the second year in a row, along with multiple other fin whales.  Minkes have been around too. Join us for a trip soon!

June 16, 2006:  Things are picking up out on the Ledge!  Over the past week, there have been numerous fin whales and minkes around, along with a couple humpbacks.  Yesterday we were happy to see our fin whale #9638 (most fin whales don't have names...yet!), who we've seen almost every year since we started tracking it in 1996!

May 31, 2006: We've started off the season with some great trips! The Granite State held the first Blue Ocean Society-affiliated whale watches of the season a couple weekends ago, and passengers were amazed at the sight of lunge-feeding fin whales! (see photo below by naturalist Beth Boucher). Over Memorial Day weekend, all our affiliate boats were out.  Sightings were a bit scarce, but we did manage to see some fin whales and minkes over the weekend.  We'll be out again this week and weekend!

Click here for 2005 sightings reports (one of our best seasons in memory!)