We had a great trip today! It began with fantastic weather and a couple of humpbacks going on some dives. While watching our first whales of the day, we spotted some splashing going on in the distance. We went to check it out and found a mother and calf doing some flipper slapping! I didn't get the best look at mom's fluke, so I'm still working on an ID, but we got some great looks at her and her little one flipper slapping in unison and swimming around our boat. There were a few times when they got super close to us, with mom even coming up between our bow pulpits! This pair seemed to calm down after a bit, and we moved forward to some more whales. We found a pair of VERY large adult humpbacks traveling together with another individual nearby. This group was mainly diving, but we were able to get some good looks at them. Just as we were about to head home, we heard from another whale watching boat that there were some humpbacks feeding not too far away. We decided to take a few minutes to check this out. When we arrived, we got a few looks at humpbacks kick feeding and open mouth feeding! There were 5 or 6 humpbacks in this group, and a whale named Draco was with them. The food seemed to move on, and the whales began diving, but the best treat was stumbling upon a pod of white-sided dolphin! The dolphin enjoyed jumping in the wake created by our boat, and there were whales all around us! It was certainly an exciting day.

~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

During our PM trip we ran into Percussion! Percussion is not registered as one of our moms this year, but I am almost positive that this was the whale we saw and that it was with a calf! This would be a great sighting if we have yet another mom on the Bank this season, so I'm going to try and confirm that as soon as possible. We got some nice close-up looks at these whales, including some very rare under-the-water looks! Percussion even gave us a flipper slap at one point. We then moved on to explore the Bank a little more, and we came across several whales: at least two minkes and four to six humpbacks! At one point we had four humpbacks get very close together right next to our boat. I'm still working on the ID of some of these whales, but it was great to see so many individuals around.

~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist, Photo of Percussion

On our PM trip today, the whales were relaxing after their breakfast. We first spotted a humpback mother, calf, and escort doing some flipper slapping! After a little while they calmed down, and we were able to get very close. We got some nice looks at these whales, and a very quick look at a fin whale that passed by. Leaving these whales to check out the Bank a bit more, we came upon another humpback mother and calf with an escort! These three were having a lazy afternoon as well, which allowed us to get nice and close. I didn't get a good look at the flukes of these mothers to ID them, but we sure got great looks otherwise!

~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist