Labels: fin whale, lunge feeding, Scratch

During our PM trip we found a ton of whales! First, we came across a bunch of humpbacks feeding together. We were able to see some bubble netting and open mouth feeding from at least 5 humpbacks around the boat! There were also at least 5 or more other humpbacks in the distance feeding. Among the whales around us were Coral and Rapier and her calf. There was so much to see, it was hard to keep track of everything. We had a few whales tail lobbing very close to the boat, as well as in the distance. I think some passengers may have even been splashed by a big tail lob right off our bow! While all of this was going on, there were two minkes close by AND a pair of fin whales in the distance lunge feeding cooperatively. It was quite an exciting afternoon!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: Coral, fin whale, humpbacks, lunge feeding, minke whale, rapier, tail lobbing

Happy Fourth of July! Our afternoon trip on this beautiful day let us see a few whales we had seen on our morning trip and some Fin whales. We got some great looks at a mother and calf fin whale something we don't get to see all that often. A few other fin whales near by were lunge feeding. The humpbacks were also feeding we had about 10 different ones doing some open mouth feeding, blowing bubbles, and Pinpoint was there from this morning too! It was great to see that the whales were still doing so much feeding hours after our first trip. Some of the birds we saw on today's trip were Sooty, and Greater Shearwaters, several gulls, and some Wilson Storm Petrels.
~Melissa Rocha, Lead Naturalist

Labels: fin whale, great shearwater, lunge feeding, pinpoint, sooty shearwaters, Wilson Storm Petrels

The afternoon trip we went to the area we had been in this morning, and there was still bait fish all over! Lavalier and her calf were in the area, as were so many others. We had a pair of lunge feeding fin whales, bubble nets and kick feeding from humpbacks. We had Pinpoint and Cajun in the area, as well. Cajun gave us some amazing open mouths very close to the boat! We also got a few appearances from minkes in the area.
~ Emily Griffin, Naturalist

Labels: bait, cajun, fin whale, Lavalier, lunge feeding, minke whale, pinpoint

This photo was submitted by Paul Bishop.
View more whale watch photos and submit your own here.

Our PM trip was amazing! We first came upon two fin whales traveling together. This is a rare sight to begin with, but then they began lunge feeding! It was such a great opportunity to see the full size of these whales. Even our captain said she had never seen that behavior from finbacks. While this was going on, we had another 5 or so humpbacks around our boat. These whales were doing a variety of activities to take advantage of all the bait fish in the area. We saw some tail slapping, open mouth feeding, and bubble netting from these humpbacks. It was a fantastic trip!
~Jackie O'Mara, Naturalist

Labels: bait, bubble feeding, fin whale, humpbacks, lunge feeding, tail slapping