September 8th came with fog and our 10:00 am departure was cancelled. Our 2:00 pm trip took us a few miles south of Bliss Island where we found a finback whale (We watched the same whale off Nancy’s Head, Campobello Island about 90 minutes later in the trip). There was still a heavy haze/fog in the offshore but with a little visibility we headed off to the Grand Manan Channel where we found Cork, a 4 year-old female humpback (seen here).
September 9th brought more fog and another am trip cancelled. Our afternoon trip the fog persisted and confined us to the inner islands where we spent our time with a minke whale. We got some great close encounters.
September 10th, the fog has lifted!! Unable to find whales in the offshore (NOT for lack of trying, we covered a lot of ground looking for finbacks and humpbacks) we continued to Head Harbour Passage where we spent some time with 2 minke whales. On our 2:00 pm trip, with the change of tide and much calmer seas than our morning trip we headed off to the Grand Manan Channel to look for humpbacks. We found Cork again, in what seems to be her preferred spot on the ebb tide. A great trip!
Below you can see 3 grey seals, a fairly common sight in the our part of the Bay of Fundy (picture taken on September 8th). The seal on the left is a female, on the right is an adult male and the seal in the middle is a young of the year, most likely born in early February. This is not a family, even though it makes a nice picture, they are just 3 seals who are hauled out on the same rock. Grey seals are much larger than the more common harbour seal (about 200 lbs) and the males can reach a weight of almost 900 lbs.
Just wanted to say thanks to the whole crew for such a great day!! We went whale watching a few years ago and didn’t see anything (not with Quoddy) so today was a great adventure. Definately keeping my fingers crossed our pictures turn out of Cork. Thanks again!!
Natalie and Steve