Despite the rainy weather we had a wonderful day on the water. As we headed offshore we soon spotted a blow in the distance. As we approached we discovered that not only was there one whale, but two! It was a mother and calf pair of finback whales-the first pair of the season! We were fortunate to get wonderful looks as both mother and calf surfaced together, close to the boat, making everyone gasp in amazement!
After numerous close looks we decided to move on to the south, curious to see if we could find more whales. And we DID! A couple of blows turned into three, then four, five, and finally six! No doubt our new Allied Whale research intern, Lauren, was busy collecting data! There were six finback whales feeding in this one specific area! The boat's fish finder indicated a great deal of bait fish, most likely herring, a couple of hundred feet down. These finback whales most likely focusing on feeding. It is amazing to think that these whales can consume between 4,000-6,000 pounds of fish a day! I guess they must considering they weigh 60 to 70 tons!
Along with the 10-12 whales we saw today we also had great pelagic seabirds including: North Atlantic puffins, Greater shearwaters, Northern gannets, and Wilson storm petrels. Lots of harbor and grey seals out there too! So all in all another great day off shore in the Gulf of Maine!
