Happy 2013 Whale Season from Bar Harbor Whale Watch! We have been so excited to get this summer kicked off, and now that all is underway, we have some great news to share. After a weekend of rough weather, our first puffin and whale watching trip went out this past Monday the 27th. It was a huge success!
We had a beautiful day on the water as we headed offshore on the Bay King III, one of our three jet-powered catamarans. On our way out, we got some beautiful views of the islands around Frenchman Bay and of Schoodic Peninsula. We then arrived at Petit Manan Island for our first 2013 puffin visit. The island was full of life, and we saw tons of puffins! All looked very sharp in their breeding season colors, sporting famously bright orange bills. It was easy to see why these little birds are often called sea parrots. In addition to the puffins, there were several other species of seabirds present in really impressive numbers. We saw many common terns and razorbills on and around the island. It was great to check out Petit Manan's lighthouse, Maine's second tallest, and see the set-ups bird researchers on the island use to study these animals. We're looking forward to checking in with these researchers throughout the season to hear realtime updates about the nesting populations of puffins and other birds.
After we left Petit Manan, we headed out to an offshore area called the Ballpark. The Ballpark is generally a great area for larger whales to feed, so it's the perfect place to look for them. Since this was our first trip of the season, though, we couldn't be sure where whales would be. We spent some time cruising the Ballpark, scanning as we traveled, until some passengers on the second deck spotted the first blow of the season! We stopped the boat and quickly all aboard saw the huge animal less than 200 yards from the Bay King III - a fin whale! We stayed with the whale for a while, watching it hang at the surface and dive down. As it went on deeper dives and lifted more of its body out of the water, our Allied Whale researcher on board, Jesse, was able to get photographs that may be used to identify this whale. Perhaps this finback has visited with us before! It was a truly beautiful animal. Though all fin whales have white coloring on the right sides of their bodies, this animal seemed lighter than usual on its left as well. This meant we could see it really clearly when it was hanging right beneath the surface- an amazing sight! Last year the fin whales in our area seemed to arrive later than usual and in lower numbers, so it was so great to see one of these guys on our very first trip out. It was a fantastic day!
Our second trip of the season on Tuesday the 28th was just as successful as the first. The Bay King III went out and had another great visit with puffins, terns, razorbills and more at Petit Manan. Again, we headed out to the Ballpark in search of whales and found a beautiful fin whale! The whale went on longer dives, but kept coming up right near the boat. On our last looks, it swam right across the bow, giving all aboard amazing views. Our Allied Whale researcher for Tuesday, Teressa, got more great pictures to use for photo identification. Some of our crew suspect that this is the same individual we saw on Monday, so hopefully Allied Whale can analyze the pictures from both trips and figure out if this is the same friendly animal. Either way, it was a gorgeous whale to watch!
We are so happy the season has gotten off to such a great start. We can't wait to keep getting offshore and seeing more seabirds and marine mammals. Our first two trips bode for a great summer and fall full of incredible sea life!
-Below are photos from the 5/28/13 whale watch-
-Below are photos from the 5/28/13 whale watch-
