On our way out to the Bank in the afternoon we had to stop to check out an ocean sunfish, also known as a Mola Mola. It was a unique experience to see this animal--the largest bony fish in the ocean! After getting some good looks at the fish (ours was only about 3 or 4 feet long) and after giving it some good looks at us, we continued onwards to the whales. We first found a couple of humpbacks going on some dives. We spent a few minutes with these individuals before spotting a whale breaching in the distance! This humpback kept up the breaching until we got closer, and we were able to get a good up-close look at the breaching behavior. I had thought that this was a whale named Lapel, but we were later able to identify it as Habanero. Habanero began flipper slapping like crazy after the breaching, and treated us to some rolls! We got some great looks at this whale and some quick looks at a minke who stopped by for a bit. Habanero then tired out and began going on some dives. On the way home we stopped to check out two other humpbacks doing some flipper slapping and diving around a bunch of fishing boats!

~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

It was a very active day today for our whales! On our morning trip we found a group of 5 or 6 humpbacks feeding! This group included Thread and Fulcrum with her calf. We were able to see several different feeding strategies: kick feeding, tail lobbing, and a few open mouths all alongside our boat! Getting in on the action were a fin whale and a pair of minkes. We even caught a quick breach from Thread! After this, the food seemed to spread out, or maybe the whales were full, either way our group split up and began to travel. We stayed close to Thread for the chance of another breach, but instead Thread was joined by Echo and another individual, and they opted to go on some dives. This group gave us some nice looks, and we also got incredibly close looks at a few more minkes in the area. It was a rare experience to be so close to several individuals of this smaller whale.
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

During our afternoon trip, we had four or more humpbacks all around us going on some dives. A younger whale named Buckle was part of this group. We were able to get good looks at all of these whales from all sides of the boat. While we were checking out the humpbacks, we also had the luck to see a minke and a pair of fin whales! It was quite the busy afternoon!

~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist