2013-2022 Whale Watch sighting reports
CRESLI/Viking Fleet Whale Watch Sightings 2013-2022
CRESLI 2022 Whale Watch Naturalist Blog
| Sunday July 3, 2022
One of the best trips in 10 years
The Viking Fleet and CRESLI began our 27th consecutive season of whale watching trips with amazing encounters with 8 fin whales, 1 humpback (back for its 3rd time in the past 4 years), 2 groups of about 30 short-beaked common dolphins, and a large and diverse array of pelagic birds. The whales, dolphins, and birds were feeding on dense prey patches at 125-150 feet down. What a way to start!!
|
| Sunday, July 10, 2022
Another excellent day on the Viking Starship.
We started off with repoprts of dolphins, and we did find them, and kept finding them over the course of our trip, approximately 300 in total, including some newborn calves. We also found a loggerhead sea turtle and had brief encounter with a minke whale
|
| Wednesday, July 13, 2022
An excellent day on the water with 120 short-beaked common dolphins and loads of pelagic birds
It was a beautiful afternoon on the Viking Starship. We had reports of whales nearshore and searched without success, we headed offshore and while we encountered pelagic birds, Portuguese Man-o-Wars, and too many balloons. It wasn't until we got back to the area we'd searched last Wednesday and found about 120 short-beaked common dolphins and hundreds of shearwaters, a handful of Wilson's storm petrels, and an immature Northern gannet. The dolphins, came over and swam alongside, we were barely moving and had amazing views.
|
| Sunday, July 17, 2022
This was one of our best local whale watch trips of the past 10 years!!
There aren’t enough superlatives to describe the trip. Suffice it to say that for most, it was the trip of a lifetime! We were surrounded by whales for a radius of several miles and we often saw the classic “picket fence” of whales blows that we would see on our offshore trips to the Great South Channel. Let’s let the number do the “talking.”
|
| Wednesday, July 22, 2022
Another multispecies day!
No better way to beat the heat than with a whale watch! Comfortable breezes at sea were joined by dozens of small pods of short-beaked common dolphins throughout the voyage (200-250 total), including several mother/calf pairs and juveniles. Passengers listening closely at the bow could hear their clicks and whistles as the dolphins swam alongside the vessel. A mako shark sighting preceded that of a hammerhead to the delight of those aboard. One minke whale with a fishy-smelling exhalation gave new meaning to the term "stinky minke" (normally referring to their lack of a visible spray/blow and subsequent difficulty in spotting) as it surfaced close by. Two more minkes and a pair of finback whales were also observed. Pelagic bird sightings included (approximately) 120 Great Shearwaters, 40-50 Cory's Shearwaters, 4 Manx Shearwaters, 1 immature Northern Gannet, and 120-150 Wilson's Storm Petrels, half of which occurred in one large, beautiful flock. Escape the heat with us this Sunday as we sail along cool waters and explore more of this amazing coastal ecosystem
|
| Sunday, July 24, 2022
Dolphins, pelagic birds, sharks, and a heartbreaking sight: a very ill humpback whale
It's a heat wave, but you can keep the heat and I'll take the wave. There are few better ways to beat the heat than with a whale watch! The high heat and humidity on land gave way to cool offshore breezes. We were treated to early views of pelagic shearwaters, which continued throughout the trip. The waters were choppy, so we decided to change direction to minimize wind and maximize sightings. As if on cue, we immediately stumbled upon a hammerhead drifting next to our vessel. Shortly after, a small group of short-beaked common dolphins spent time near our bow before we headed off in search of larger residents. Although the wind quickly dissipates the blow from whales, a spout was sighted and investigated. Upon arrival, we found a humpback whale very different from ones typically sighted. This individual was reddish/brown in appearance and was drifting slowly at and just beneath the surface. Upon further inspection using zoomed-in photographs taken of the individual, the humpback appears to be infested with cyamids, tiny crustaceans found only on the bodies of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises). Since this is an indication of distress, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) was immediately notified. AMCS reported the whale and its location to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency responsible for protecting whales under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. Although humpback whales in the Northwest Atlantic are no longer considered endangered thanks to decades of conservation efforts, they are subject to entanglement with fishing line and gear which can severely weaken and/or drown the individual. NOAA and AMCS will continue to monitor this situation. As we returned home, a small group of bottlenose dolphins were spotted close to shore, wrapping up another successful trip. We sail every Wed and Sun until Labor Day; book your trip today!
|
| Wednesday, July 27, 2022
It just keeps getting better and better! 5 species of cetaceans and 6 species of pelagic girds on this trip
Twenty minutes from the Lighthouse and about 4 miles away we found 80-100 inshore bottlenose dolphins chasing bait at the surface and diving to 75 feet for bait at the sea floor. We headed on our way and found our first whales about an hour later. We saw 7 different humpback whales blow at the same time! WOW! It gets better – there were two mom/calf humpback pairs including Rune and her 2022 calf. No other humpback researchers knew that she had a calf until we found with her! We have yet to ID the 2nd mom. The humpbacks were breaching, bubble feeding, open mouth feeding, flipper slapping! WOW! We also had at least 4 finback whales – 2 mom/calf pairs. Oh, let’s not forget about 60 short-beaked common dolphins. Another spectacular trip and probably the best yet.
|
| Sunday, July 31, 2022
An absolutely majestic day aboard the Viking Starship today.
We set sail under clear skies, calm seas, and unlimited visibility. An encounter with a hammerhead shark commenced our adventure, staying near (and long) enough at the surface for all to get a good look. Soon after, a small group of inshore bottlenose dolphins were spotted and enjoyed. As we searched for whales, several large pods of short-beaked common dolphins charged toward and surrounded the boat. A nursery made up of a dozen mother/calf pairs accompanied the large group which swam near, around, and beneath our vessel. A second hammerhead shark was spotted close by while a blow belonging to a humpback whale was observed in the distance. The whale began a series of tail slaps revealing the unique ‘snow white’ undersides of its flukes, which can be used to identify the individual. No sooner than we decide to move on in search of other cetaceans does the whale breach clear out of the water and demand our attention a bit longer. A third hammerhead is spotted and the large pod of common dolphin returns, encircling our boat (and the whale) with sightings in literally every direction. What a great day!
|
| Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Log another successful whale watch in the books; we are 9 for 9!
Yesterday, we sailed under near-perfect conditions and spotted our first of four minke whales. While waiting for the minkes to resurface, we got a very nice look at a hammerhead shark swimming along the surface. This was the first of several sharks, two of which were confirmed as hammerheads. While searching for more whales, we passed a sea turtle and scores of pelagic birds. A breach announced the presence of our first humpback, a juvenile we previously encountered on Sunday’s trip. We then spent time with a second humpback; a curious juvenile who made viewing from the vessel easy and entertaining. We then found two more humpbacks, with blows from other whales observed in the distance. It was another great trip during what has turned out to be an amazing season. We sail every Wednesday and Sunday until Labor Day – come join us!
|
| Sunday, August 7, 2022
Well, we found them again bottlenose dolphins, humpback whales, sea turtle, and hammerhead shark
It was a bouncy ride for our first hours, but we enjoyed being away from the heat and being out on the ocean looking for wildlife. Pelagic birds flew around us most of the trip (Cory's, Scopoli's, and Great Shearwaters). We found what was most likely a loggerhead sea turtle, but never had great looks at it. Right after the turtle, we found the first of several small pods of inshore bottlenose dolphins feeding on prey at the surface and continued to search for whales. A beautiful smooth hammerhead shark swam on our starboard side just feet away from us. We had amazing views. Ultimately a humpback breached in the distance ahead of us. It was one of the humpbacks we'd seen on our last trip. We began to see more and more humpbacks around us, and were ready to go to them. Unfortunately, a passenger experienced a serious medical issue and we had to head to the dock and meet EMT's. As much as we wanted to see more whales, the health and safety of people onboard take precedence. As we headed towards the Lighthouse, dolphins came swimming towards us from all over.
We'll be back out there on Wednesday.
|
| Wednesday, August 10, 2022
A truly HOLY S***T DAY! 3 species of cetaceans and hundreds of pelagic birds feeding on sand eels!
Breaching, open-mouth feeding, flipper slapping, mom/calf pairs, associated groups – you name the humpback behavior, we saw it. At one point, whales, pelagic birds and large striped bass were feeding together on the abundance of prey. It might be easier to let the photos and videos speak for themselves. Our senior scientist/naturalist/educator, Dr. Artie Kopelman, was on-board, and 2 days later is still reviewing the over 700 photos and videos. They will be posted soon along with the ID’s of the whales.
|
| Sunday, August 14, 2022
It keeps getting better!!
|
| Wednesday, August 17, 2022
We found them again
The marine forecast called for 4-6 ft seas, heavy winds and rain, but we sailed out on relatively calm seas with the wind on our backs and rain falling only on the land behind us. Plus, they forgot to mention a 100% chance of whales! We started our successful trip with great views of a smooth hammerhead shark and spent some time with a very small pod of inshore bottlenose dolphins before heading farther offshore for "larger bounty". Three species of shearwaters, several large flocks of Wilson's storm petrels and a handful of common loons kept us company during the transit. Blows were spotted in the distance and we discovered eight individual humpback whales (likely more), including at least one mother/calf pair. At numerous times, we were literally surrounded with whales in all directions of the boat. Out of time, we returned to the dock, but not before enjoying a few more close-up views of the whales with blows from others in the distance. We remain 100% successful in finding cetaceans this season. We sail every Wednesday and Sunday until Labor Day; come join us!
|
| Sunday, August 21, 2022
Another Sunday on the sea with whales!!
Sunday was a calm day with little wind and small waves and gray skies. We headed out to where we’d seen whales on our last trips and found the whales again about a few nautical miles further west. On the way we encountered a shark (undetermined species) and a loggerhead sea turtle. We found humpbacks and fin whales. While we stayed with the 12 or so humpbacks as they open-mouth and cooperatively kick fed on sand eels, we were never able to spend time near the fin whales (maybe next trip?). These were adult humpbacks, some with calves, and some of the same whales humpback we’ve seen over the past month were there, as were new ones. We passed by 2 juvenile humpbacks feeding on bunker on the way in, not far from Montauk Point Our photos taken by Dr. Artie Kopelman will be posted later today.
|
| Wednesday, August 24, 2022
We did it again!
It was another successful and beautiful day on the water. Having traveled miles offshore to observe whales on previous trips, we were treated to our first sighting just beyond the lighthouse: a breaching and tail-slapping humpback accompanied by a second, smaller individual. Not to be outdone, a shark (possibly a mako) appeared at the same time just beyond our vessel. After spending time with the two whales, we moved on to another spot where 3 more humpbacks would be identified. One of these had terrible propeller scars along the right side of its body. Although healed now, it was a reminder of the dangers from boat strikes and entanglements this population faces. Two minke whales were spotted before three additional humpbacks were spotted, one of which was also tail throwing. Rafts of Cory's Shearwater rested at the surface, likely with bellies full of fish, as blows of whales spouted in the distance. We remain 100% successful in finding cetaceans this season with only three trips remaining. Hope to see you out on the water with us soon!
|
| Sunday, August 28, 2022
Another 3 cetacean species trip!
Heading out on choppy seas and limited sightings reported locally, our experienced crew was determined to find cetaceans. Not far from shore, a veteran volunteer spotted a minke whale, the smallest of our local baleen whales, likely feeding on the dense patches of bait fish which could been seen as dark spots in the water. While observing the minke, passengers enjoyed close-up views of a hammerhead shark which swam near, around, and under our vessel to the delight of those onboard. Shortly after, a blow belonging to a humpback whale was spotted and investigated. We soon discovered a familiar "friend", an individual seen on our last trip and several previous trips this season. While spending time with this bottom-feeding humpback, we were treated to a thunderous tail throw and subsequent rollover at the surface. As we kept watch for more activity, a small pod of inshore bottlenose dolphins appeared nearby. Eventually moving away from the whale to observe the dolphins, we discovered two separate blows (from two distinct individuals) and pursued one of them, only to realize that we were back with our familiar friend. Dolphins reappeared on our return to the dock, wrapping up another successful day on the water. Only 3 dates remain for the season - book your trip today!
|
| Wednesday, August 31, 2022
Our successful trips continue: 2 humpback whales!
|
| Sunday, September 4, 2022
Another stellar trip with 5 humpback whales!!
This incredible season continues! We didn't have to travel far from Montauk Lighthouse to find our first humpback. This was Scylla's 2016 calf again. The propeller scars and damaged dorsal are hard to look at, but the resilience of this animal is a testament to its will to survive. This 6 year old whale is just almost 40 feet (12.2m) long, and was feeding on the bottom periodically and after a while came to the surface and first, we saw a massive "tail-throw," followed by multiple bouts of pectoral flipper-slapping, and rolling over, sometimes right next to us on the starboard side (our engines were out of gear, of course) and right under our bow. Just amazing. A small private boat was nearby and appropriately remained motionless as this whale swam and flipper-slapped . The whale let loose with a trumpet-blow" as it dove just ahead of the small vessel. A trumpet blow, i.e., the exhalation has a distinctly audible trumpet-like sound, is often an agonistic sign - a warning to the folks on the vessel. Scylla's 2016 calf (AKA NYC0224) came over to us on the next surfacing and also trumpet-blew. That was our sign to leave this whale alone.
We saw another humpback breach a few miles away and headed there. The breaching stopped and the whale was feeding and diving in shallow water and only undertook low fluking dives, at least 6 of them. We left this whale and searched for others. Our 3rd whale was in extremely shallow water, inshore of us and we were in 22 feet of water. We watching bunker begin to jump and saw this young whale surface lunge through a patch of bunker. What a beautiful site!
15 minutes later we were with a fourth whale in slightly deeper water. There were layers of bait on the bottom and about from the surface to 15 feet. We watched the whale dive repeatedly , full-fluking dives, and saw it release a massive fecal plume. We had to head in, but passed by another humpback, this one dove next to us and we recognized it from the fluke patterns and the foul-fetid stench of its blow.
An amazing trip!!
|
| Sunday, September 11, 2022
About 100 inshore bottlenose dolphins and 3 humpbacks including 1 new one, and once again spent time with Scylla 2016 calf. Towards the end of the trip, we decided to head offshore a little and as we turned back, we saw breaches and as we sailed to the whale we saw 11 more consecutive breaches, several tail throws and flipper slaps. We got close- it was Scylla’s 2016 calf again! He stopped breaching but kept flipper slapping including coming up right next to us. Great way to end the season!
|
2021 Whale Watch Naturalist Blog
| Saturday June 26, 2021
Brief encounter with 20 Inshore bottlenose dolphins and good variety of pelagic birds
The Viking Fleet and CRESLI began our 25th consecutive season of whale watching trips slowly, i.e., finding dolphins. While we were successful in finding cetaceans (the group of animals that include whales, dolphins, and porpoises), our encounter with 20 inshore bottlenose dolphins was brief. We saw them crossing our bow about 500 yards away, but never really got good views of photographs. The dolphins seemed to be intent on feeding and quickly moved away. While we tried to find them again, we were unsuccessful.
The pelagic bird life was quite good, seeing 5 different species including 30 Cory’s shearwaters, 8 Great shearwaters, 1 Sooty shearwater, 1 Manx shearwater, and around 50 Wilson storm petrels
A good way start to the 2021 season. We hope to find more tomorrow
|
| Sunday June 27, 2021
Humpback and another day with a good variety of pelagic birds
We left the dock at Montauk to clearing skies and fair weather for the second trip of the season. Today the Viking Starship rounded Montauk Point and cruised southeast. Over the next few hours we covered a lot of ocean searching for whales. We observed good numbers and a variety of seabirds along our trip. Eventually we were excited to start seeing isolated "blows" in the distance. We proceeded to close with the whale but it was not making many visible blows and was moving, not feeding in one place. We continued to search heading closer to Long Island and saw a few blows, probably indicating more than one whale in the vicinity. At one point we saw two blows close together, one larger and one smaller, so perhaps a cow-calf pair.
|
|
Finback whale!
We left the dock at Montauk to look for whales and escape the heat. Once we got into water with sea surface temperatures in the 63-640F, we relished the cool air. The winds were as predicted, SW at 15-20 knots, the seas were as predicted also at 3-4 feet. We headed SW 8 for nautical miles and saw few birds and no cetaceans. We then headed due east and 3 nautical miles later, a whale blows right next to us. It was a faint blow, but a blow none-the-less. This was our first encounter with what eventually was identified as young finback whale ~45' long. We slowly followed this deep diving, 5-8 minute diving whale for 5 nautical miles, the whale was feeding near the bottom (120') on dense prey patches. The sea conditions and the speed of this whale made it nearly impossible to clearly identify (although we believe it to be a fin whale) until it steeply surfaced and we could see the unique fin whale characteristics: white right lower jar, blaze, eye stripe, chevron. This whale had distinctive killer whale raking scars on its dorsal fin, and entanglement scars across its back.
What an amazing sight! What a special day! Our 168th identifiable fin whale since 2009!
|
| Sunday July 4, 2021
Pelagic birds – yes! Cetaceans – no!
After 31 consecutive successful trips since July 17, 2019 and for only the 11th time since 2009, we were unable to find a cetacean (whale, dolphin, or porpoise. The conditions were excellent, with unlimited visibility, clear skies, cool temperatures (sea surface temperatures from 52.850F to 67.730F). We traveled over 40nm and encountered pelagic birds often, we saw no whales. Their prey has begun to show up abundantly, in some areas from the surface to the bottom. We will find them again
|
| Wednesday July 7, 2021
We’re back at it again: Humpback and short-beaked common dolphins!
It was the perfect day to get on the water, escape the heat, and look for whales and dolphins. The visibility was good, as were the seas and we headed out to the SSE. It was an hour before we found our first blows from a humpback whale. We traveled with this whale as it searched for food over the next 75 minutes and 2 nautical miles, sometimes being down for 7-8 minutes. This was a young humpback and one we’d not seen before, our 139th different humpback off Montauk since 2009. On our way back, we encountered a rambunctious pod of 30 short-beaked common dolphins
|
| Saturday July 10, 2021
An Awesome Day of Whales and Dolphins!
We left Montauk today with overcast skies, heading southeast to where we had previously seen whales. As soon as we passed Montauk Point, we had reports of dolphins close inshore, south of the point. We headed over and soon came upon a pod of about 10 bottlenose dolphins.
|
| Sunday July 11, 2021
Another Awesome Day of Whales and Dolphins!
We left Montauk today with unlimited visibility and headed to where we had seen whales on Saturday. As soon as we passed Montauk Point, we looked for dolphins and continued heading southeast. Our first blows were from a whale seen on Saturday. This poor whale is identifiable because of a massive set of propeller scars on its right side and its dorsal fin was mostly gone. This is a young whale that had been seen in the NY harbor area and catalogued as NYC0224 by our colleagues at Gotham Whale. It was last seen around NYC on 6/25. We stayed with this whale for a while and headed to a second whale in the area. We ultimately met and photographed 4 humpbacks on this trip. They were busy feeding and looking for food, often times coming up right next to us to check us out. We are never in gear when waiting for whales to surface and presented no threats. After a few hours with the whales, it was time to head back. On our way in we saw a groups of about 40 bottlenose dolphins and we stayed with them for a bit before proceeded back. By the way, we did have to retrieve many balloons on this trip, please never release helium filled balloons!
|
| Saturday July 17, 2021
7 Hammerhead sharks, a tail throwing/slapping humpback, bottlenose dolphins, and too many balloons!
We headed out to look for whales and once again to escape from the heat. The visibility was 4 miles at first, but continued to open up as we headed south for a while, then east and after 2 hours from the dock we found our 1st surprise - a large hammerhead shark (unsure of which species). Every direction we moved brought us new hammerhead sharks. Over 0.6 nautical miles, we encountered 7 different hammerheads. That's a record for us. As we continued on, we saw little, and picked up too many balloons (c'mon folks it's time to stop), but never stopped looking. At around 6 PM we saw a blow in the distance, and soon smelled the putrid, fetid, foul odor of a humpback with a possible lung infection (whale flu, as termed by Dr. Paul Forestell and others). The whale (NYC0084) was tail-throwing and tail-slapping (behaviors often used for non-vocal communication). We were in 130' of water, but the prey were only 35' down, so this whale did some low-fluking dives in search of food. We eventually had to leave, just as a small pod of about 20 bottlenose dolphins paid us a brief visit. We headed in through pea soup fog and returned late, but happy.
|
| Wednesday July 21, 2021
Another double species day! Humpbacks and minke whales!
We headed out to excellent conditions with nearly unlimited visibility,2-3 foot seas,and reports of whales and dolphins nearby. With the predicted stormy conditions to occur within a few hours, we headed west and stayed nearer to shore than on previous trips. Spoiler alert - the predicted severe weather passed to our south. We found 2 humpbacks and a minke over a 2 nautical mile stretch. Both were young and active. One was tail throwing, and later breached right next to us. The 2nd whale was resting (logging) quite often, interspersed with dives and close approaches. Our 1st humpback showed up again and we watched it follow bunker (Atlantic menhaden) and lunge feed though large piles of bunker.
|
| Saturday July 24, 2021
Minke whale, bunker, and Ocean sunfish!
Beautiful day to be out on the water today, calm seas of 1 – 2 feet, unlimited visibility and water temperature between 70 – 72 degrees Fahrenheit. While traveling west along the coast of Montauk we came upon a large school of bunker (Atlantic Menhaden). Hoping to find some cetaceans looking for a nice meal but not luck. Traveling away from the coast, we found an ocean sunfish (Mola mola) which swam directly next to the boat giving everyone onboard a great view. Traveling further away from shore a Minke whale gave us three quick views before disappearing out of sight
|
| Wednesday July 28, 2021
A special day!! 8 humpback whales,1 minke whale, 120 bottlenose dolphins!!
8 humpback whales
|
| Saturday July 31, 2021
2 humpback whales
Within 20 minutes of passing the Montauk Lighthouse, we saw our first whale spout. We spent some time with this young humpback whale giving us a blow or two and before diving down. Showing us its tail fluke, presumably to forage on baitfish close to sea floor and then surfacing every three minutes or so. This humpback gave us a peduncle throw for everyone to see as well. Continuing heading west, we saw another young humpback whale giving us a blow or two before diving. This humpback only fluked once likely feeding close to the surface. Overall, a very nice day out on the water with unlimited visibility.
|
| Sunday August 1, 2021
Another successful trip! 2minkes and 1 humpback!
What a wonderful day we had on the Viking Starship! Unlimited visibility and crisp cool air were perfect conditions for finding whales. Again with 30 minutes of passing Montauk Light, we found a minke whale that allowed us some wonderful views as it swam repeatedly near the bow. We headed further and 45 minutes later, another minke (larger the 1st one) surfaced within 2 yards of the starboard side of our bow sprit. Captain Davy immediately stopped and the whale dove as the crew collectively held its breath. Within 30 minutes we encountered a 27-36' humpback that was one we had seen on Wednesday, We had amazing views as this whale rolled over and was logging (resting) with intermittent low-fluking and high-fluking dive to reach the massive concentrations of prey at 40' (mid-water) and 75' (bottom).
|
| Wednesday August 4, 2021
Whales in the rain!
We headed out with excellent visibility and just a light misty rain, hoping that the rain would stay to our south. Oh well, we were wrong, although when the wind was behind us, the rain was quite tolerable. We weren’t really fazed by the rain and continued to search for whales. After about an hour, a minke whale did a full-body breach just 200 yds from then port bow. It was an amazing, yet fleeting sight that only a handful of us saw. An hour later we saw the tell-tall splash of a breach and headed to find a humpback lunge feeding and taking high-fluking dives. These were great sights that made the rainy trip worthwhile. The humpback was one we’d seen in this area 2 weeks earlier.
|
| Saturday August 7, 2021
Only fainting glimpses today.
Nice weather, favorable seas and 10+ miles of visibility, while traveling over 44 miles only yielding a few of us a brief view of a cetacean. We had an unidentified whale blow spotted by one of our CRESLI volunteers a mile or so behind us. We searched long and hard but never saw the whale come up again. A while later, a dolphin was spotted by a few members of the crew only to swim away and not seen again. We also had an unknown shark species swim by close to the boat, giving people on that side a quick view before disappearing. We do not get many trips like this with great conditions and little to no sightings. Our track record says we will have better days in the future.
|
| Sunday August 8, 2021
Another AMAZING multi-species day!
Unlimited visibility, flat seas, gray skies, with just a few sprinkles for 2 minutes after leaving the dock - a far cry from the storm/rainy weather to our west. Our first whale was a minke, not far from Montauk Lighthouse. Within 45 minutes we saw 2 other minkes, and then the first of 5 humpback whales. Within an hour we found 3 more minkes, another humpback, and 15 inshore bottlenose dolphins and that was just the beginning. Within the next 40 minutes we encountered 4 more humpbacks and 45 more inshore bottlenose dolphins. To top it off, we found a smooth hammerhead shark on our way back in.
|
| Wednesday August 11, 2021
4.5 year old humpback whale (Liner 2016 calf) again!
Today, the fog that had been around for hours lifted and we were able to head out. Our 3 miles of visibility was enough and within 30 minutes after passing Montauk Lighthouse, we found our 1st whale. This was a 4.5 year old humpback whale (Liner 2016 calf) that has been around Montauk for at least 4 weeks. It was busy feeding on prey at the bottom, spending up to 9 minutes down. At one point, it BREACHED right off our port bow (15 week away). An awesome full body breach!
After spending 50 minutes with this whale, we decided to look for others. What we found, unfortunately, was dense fog everywhere. That was it and we decided to head back to port.
|
| Saturday August 14, 2021
An awesome 3 species of cetaceans day
Another great day to be out on the water. 10+ miles of visibility, calm seas, a cool breeze and plenty of sunshine. Less than half an hour after passing Montauk Lighthouse, we came upon a pair of humpback whales giving us plenty of views with short dive times due to large schools of Atlantic menhaden (bunker) at the surface. One even showed off giving us a few peduncle throws. As the Viking Starship continued heading west we found 3 minke whales with one of them giving us a couple of nice views to make comparisons of size and behavioral patterns with the humpback whales we had just seen. Next we saw a large Mola mola (ocean sunfish) just resting at the surface. As we headed further south we found another humpback whale and 30 – 40 inshore bottlenose dolphins. Continuing our trip, we found another minke whale and approximately 20 inshore bottlenose dolphins swimming in the same general area. There we several whale blows off in distance in multiple directions that we just did not have time to investigate. As we headed back to Montauk, we saw approximately 10 dolphins and another minke whale. Later approaching the lighthouse, our original 2 humpbacks put on quite a show breaching and pec slapping filling up customer’s memory cards with many pictures and videos. What a fabulous way to end a great trip.
|
| Sunday August 15, 2021
Another spectacular 3 species trip! Humpbacks, minkes, and inshore bottlenose dolphins!
We couldn't have asked for better conditions - unlimited visibility, 10-15 knot winds out of the NW, and 2' seas that later flattened out as the wind changed to SW. Within 20 minutes of passing Montauk Lighthouse we were on our first whale, MTK.2021.08.15-01, a flipper slapping, rolling humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae). 20 minutes later, we are visited by a small ocean sunfish (Mola mola). 20 minutes later, we meet our 2nd humpback and our 3rd humpback a few minutes after that. 20 minutes later, we encounter our 4th humpback. It's a young whale (small) and has survived an encounter with a propeller that left terrible scars on its left fluke. It was resting periodically and feeding, but it looked to be unwell and weak, or so we thought, due to the tremendous areas of sloughed skin. We ever wrong! Five breaches followed by 10 minutes of flipper-slapping showed how much energy this whale had. Throughout our hours among the humpbacks we encountered 3 different minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata). As we headed in, we encountered an aggregation of several small groups of inshore bottlenose, perhaps 45 in total.
What a special day!
|
| Wednesday August 18, 2021
Our best trip of the year!!
Once again we had perfect conditions and lots of whales reported to us. 15 minutes after passing Montauk Lighthouse, we saw our first of about 12 minke whales. We encountered our the 1st of 11 humpback whales 30 minutes later! We were able to get close to photograph and identify 6 humpbacks, while the other 5 were seen within a 800 yard radius around us as we left out last whale – we’d run out of time.
What made this trip extra special was that the last whale we were close to (the 2016 calf of Nile) was a true survivor. This young male had been severely entangled in 2900 lbs. of fishing gear and was disentangled via a herculean 4 day effort (https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/humpback-whale-disentangled-new-york-all-thanks-team-effort). We were the first vessel to encounter this whale last year 3 weeks after being freed. We saw the extent of its injuries and were glad (as was all involved) to have seen it alive on August 19, 2020. To see it again 364 days later only 4 nautical miles away from where we last saw it on August 2020 was special. To see that the horrendous wounds have healed was even more special. Everyone onboard was elated!
11 humpback whales
|
| Saturday August 21, 2021
Minke whale and ~100-120 short-beaked common dolphins!
So, what do you do on the day before a hurricane is supposed to hit? Go looking for whales and dolphins, of course! The visibility was good, albeit the clouds and sky were gray, while the long, rolling 5’ ground swell was very comfortable. Once again we found our first whale, another minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), right near Montauk Lighthouse. We also saw a blow from a humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) ½ mile away, but that whale didn’t show up again. We headed somewhat offshore to stay in deeper calmer waters. We found no other baleen whales, but were able to spend at least on hour with a large aggregation of about 100 short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis). The dolphins were amazing, with lots of mom and calf pairs, lots of porpoising, and jumping. These were an aggregation of several social groups, and often some would come over to try and ride of bow. We made no attempts to encourage this behavior, but even when moving slowly, the dolphins came to try and catch a lift in our bow wake. The lucky people along the bow were able to hear these animals vocalize and communicate with one another. What an amazing experience to undergo.
We hope that you weather the storm well and hope to see you out there with us on future trips.
|
| Wednesday August 25, 2021
Another multi-species day!
As we left the dock, a young gray seal (Halichoerus grypus)that we'd seen before was swimming around searching for food. Our trip on the oceans started out with a minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) that just a few of us saw (we call that a "stinky minke"). We then found a small group (10) of inshore bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and later encountered one large group (50) and another small group (10), about 70 in all. In the interim we spent time up close with a truly "stinky" humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). "Stinky" due to the mildly fetid, funky smell of its blow (perhaps due to a lung infection). Stinky humpback blows are and not that common but truly memorable. The "bait" was abundant often near the sea floor (about 90 feet depth), we saw others blows in the distance, including a massive fin whale blow at least a mile further south, unfortunately we weren't able to fin it after we'd spent our time with the humpback. It was a relatively calm day but warm day, with sea-surface temperatures in the low-mid 70's.
|
| Sunday, August 29, 2021
Another three species day, but a long one.
The day started out with an Atlantic gray seal (Halichoerus grypus atlantica)feeding in the waters of Montauk Harbor right behind the Starship as we boarded passengers.
Conditions were excellent as we headed out to the east where humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) had been spotted earlier in the day. We didn’t find that whale, but did find a group of inshore bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), a good start. As we headed south west we came across a few minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and a much larger group of inshore bottlenose dolphins. Late in the trip, our way back in we found a humpback whale! This was a whale we’d fist seen back in early July. It was wonderful to see and made everyone happy, but we returned to the dock 40 minutes. So, it was a long trip but worthwhile.
|
| Saturday September 4, 2021
Baleen whales, birds, bunker, and a bat!
What a great day to be on the water! The weather was absolutely gorgeous with unlimited visibility and calm seas. We spent the first hour cruising near shore in search of whales. Soon, a blow was spotted by one of our volunteers and we observed a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) casually swimming and diving in approximately 50 feet of water. Then things got exciting with a surprise breach in full view of passengers watching from the bow. Shoals of bunker (Atlantic menhaden) were visible at the surface in about 32 feet of water and the whale moved into shallower water to feed. We knew something extraordinary was about to happen when the fish began leaping from the water followed immediately by the lunge-feeding humpback. At this same time, a minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) was spotted on the other side of our vessel and was either joined by a second minke or spotted again a moment later. The humpback eventually moved on and so did we, returning along the coast looking for other mammals. Although we did not find any along our path home, we did encounter three different species of shearwater (Great, Cory's, and Manx) characteristically shearing their way across the water, adding to a bird list that already included a northern gannet spotted earlier in the trip. We also had a brief view of a bat (unknown species). With such an amazing and beautiful day on the water and only one trip remaining for the season, it will be sad to say goodbye to summer but we thankfully have many happy memories to keep us warm.
|
| Sunday September 5, 2021
Our last 2021 trip was a winner!
Our final trip for the 2021 season was anopther multi-species day that started, once again, with a large male gray seal in the harbor right behind the Viking Starship.
The conditions at sea were excellent: unlimited visibility, gray skies, and no sun glare. We headed west towards where we'd seen a humpback whale the day before. We found our humpback whale there too.Today's whale MTK.2021.07.28-04 has been seen by us 3 times over the past 5 weeks, a fine example of short-term site fidelity. What a fine way to end this season with another view of one of our 28 humpbacks (including 16 new ones).
Photos from 9/5/21 available to view and purchase
|
CRESLI 2020 Whale Watch Sighting Report Blog
|
4 humpback whales and massive schools of Atlantic menhaden (bunker).
Great way to start the season!
The Viking Fleet and CRESLI began our 24th consecutive season of whale watching trips just where we left off, i.e., finding whales. We had reports of whales that morning (seen from shore by our naturalist, Dr. Artie Kopelman, and heard in the fog aboard the Viking Starship that morning by the intrepid Viking Fleet mate, Joey Ferguson). We also had reports of dolphins west of town. Out we headed and within a short while we were past Montauk Light looking for cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises). Shortly thereafter a fog bank rolled in and we continued on and listened for blows. Eventually the fog lifted and we found ourselves in the midst of many massive schools of bunker. Here we encountered feeding humpback whales. Two juveniles were photographed and we had brief glimpses of 2 others.
A wonderful start to the 2020 season.
|
|
3 humpback whales, 1 minke whale and more
Our 2nd trip of the 2020 season didn't let us down. We had reports of whales from several places and began our trip with a great plan. With excellent visibility and conditions, we found our first whale within 40 minutes from passing Montauk Light, a humpback. This whale was busy searching for food 100' down and would rise to the surface after a few minutes, blow 5-6 times and dive. We stayed with the whale until it tail slapped and we decided to head further. We headed ENE towards and found our 2nd whale about 1 hour later. We'd seen it from ~1.5 miles away and when we got near the area, it popped up just under our bowsprit. Luckily we were almost at idle speed. A minke and a thrird humpback joined us shortly thereafter. This last whale had significant Orca raking scars on its dorsal fin and flukes. We encountered other species duringour travels including 3 Ocean Sunfish, 1 jumping White Marlin, about 40 Wilson's Storm Peterels, and about 40 Great Shearwaters
|
|
4 humpback whales - 18 and 10 consecutive breaches at the end of our trip! Nice way to end the afternoon.
Our 3rd trip of the 2020 season was one for the books. Again, we had reports of whales from several places and began our trip with a great plan to survey an area not far from Gurney's. Excellent visibility and conditions allowed us to see blows from really far. Our first stop was ~6nm (nautical miles) south of the Lighthouse, where we had seen blows from about 1.5 nm away. Those whales were gone, so we headed west (2 nm) and found the first of 2 whales, one seen on the 7/18/2020 trip (MTK.2020.07.18-01). Our 2nd whale was one we had seen on the 7/25/2020 trip (MTK.2020.07.25-02). We also encountered an aggregation of about 100 Western North Atlantic Northern Migratory Coastal Stock (AKA inshore) bottlenose dolphins.
We had the priviledge of staying with these whales for over 2 hours, watching them dive for food at the sea floor, rising up 3-7 minutes later and resuming their dives. Both whales we juveniles and both had signs of previous entanglements. One whale had a tuna lure hooked into the left splashguard region (side of the blow hole). We were ready to leave and the whales began breaching simultaneously, each one on each side of the vessel. We stayed with MTK.2020.07.25-02 and it breached 18 times in 8 minutes, while MTK.2020.07.18-01 breached 10 times. Wow! The tubercles on the leading edge of a humpback's long pectoral flippers provide hydrodynamic lift and allow these whales to rise through the water column at steep angles without stalling, hence reducing the energy needed to breach.
|
|
4 humpback whales - and 2 minkes.
Within 30 minutes of passing Montauk Lighthouse and within 10 minutes of the crew “on-station” to look in earnest for whales, we saw our first blows. Our 1st humpback was one we had seen last week as well about 8 nm (nautical miles) to the SSW and only about 4 nm from Montauk Lighthouse. This was the first of our 4 humpbacks and 2 minke whales of the day. Our 2nd humpback was 2 miles away at first and joined the other whale in feeding at depth on bunker. We saw massive bunker pods at the surface, but they were only the upper boundaries of giant 80’ thick plumes of bunker. Our minke whales joined in briefly. A while later, several miles away, we found our last 2 humpbacks
Bird counts thanks to David Chernack
|
Wednesday August 12, 2020
3 Humpbacks and about 300 NW Atlantic Norther Migratory Common Bottlenose dolphins
WOW what a trip!
We had reports of whales around they Midway Buoy and within an hour we found out fist whale, a humpback we hadn’t seen before. A short while after staying with this whale, we came upon our first groups of NW Atlantic Norther Migratory (AKA “In-shore”) Common Bottlenose dolphins. At least 3 groups interacting and seemingly driving massive groups of prey. The groups dolphins would work together, with some driving forward and others turning to produce vortex-like field which formed a large circular slick. The dolphins would converge and chaos would occur. Our second groups of dolphins, over 180 of them joined in the fray. Were they feeding? We never saw them with prey in their mouths? We they mating? This we did see. So about 300 dolphins did this for nearly 2 hours.
Then we found our second humpback, another new one for us. It was breaching, followed by the typical flipper slapping. 20 minutes and a total of 18 breaches, interspersed with flipper slapping bouts. We had to head back to the dock and passed another humpback on the way in but couldn’t stop. Well we hope to see it again.
|
Wednesday August 19, 2020
Humpbacks and more Common Bottlenose dolphins
A special day for many reasons
As usual, we were headed to where we had seen whales on our previous trip. We were lucky enough to encounter a very special whale, Nile’s 2016 calf.
Three weeks ago this 4 year-old calf was found severely entangled in 3900 pounds of cable and line about 10 miles out of New York Harbor. He had just enough slack to allow him to surface in breath. It took the disentanglement teams three days to get him out. Our sighting of this juvenile whale with the first since he was disentangled. The disentanglement was a joint effort of many institutions, they’ve been notified of our sighting and are elated! He is scarred severely but is feeding and seems to be moving quite well we have our fingers crossed. By the way, we also saw him in 2018. Read about his disentanglement here
Other humpback whales and minke whales were seen, but only three humpbacks were photographed on this trip including NYC0085 (also seen last year) and a new whale we call MTK.2020.08.19-04.
As in last trip, we also encountered inshore bottlenose dolphins, but this time in small groups. Maybe a total of 120 that were working to catch prey and we saw mating too. It was a special day and we hope for the best for Nile’s 2016 calf.
PHOTOS from the 8/19/2020 trip
|
Saturday August 22, 2020
5 Humpbacks and about 60 Common Bottlenose dolphins
Today's trip couldn't have started out better, with a humpback whale in Block Island Sound before we even made it to the ocean! This was a small humpback, about 24 feet (7.3 meters), probably less than 1 year old, by itself about 1 nautical mile NNW of Montauk Point. We stayed with this whale for a short while and then headed out to find others.
It wasn't long before we found Nile’s 2016 calf again. We stayed with this 4 year old malefor some time and were able to get additional photos documenting his injuries. As we did a few days ago, we shared these photos with the Center for Coastal Studies Animal Entanglement Response (MAER) personnel and others and are glad to hear that his wounds are healing well.
4 other humpback whales and 1 minke whale were seen. As in last trip, we also encountered inshore bottlenose dolphins, but this time in even smaller groups.
PHOTOS from the 8/22/2020 trip
|
Wednesday August 26, 2020
Whales and dolphins! 40 minutes of inverted lob-tailing by 1 humpback
A few hours before our trip, Dr. Artie Kopelman (CRESLI president and senior scientist/naturalist) observe several humpbacks from shore at the western end of Montauk. High winds from the NNW helped us to decide to head west to look for whales. Right near Montauk Point we encountered 2 whales, a minke and a humpback. The humpback was diving for 9 minutes at a stretch, and the minke was almost impossible to see . After 3 minutes with these whale, we continued westward to find a small group of bottlenose dolphins. We ultimately turned to have the wind behind, and shortly later, we found a humpback we'd see on 8/19/2020 and 8/18/2019, namely NYC0084. In 2019, it was breaching, today (8/25/2020), it was lob-tailing for at least 40 minutes, almost non-stop.
Lob-tailing, breaching, flipper slapping are incredible to see and hear. These behaviors use up lots of energy. Why do humpbacks exhibit these behaviors? Well, they serve many purposes, from helping to remove epibionts ("hitch-hiking organisms living on the skin), to non-vocal communication. Cetaceans are dependent upon sound for communication of long and short distances. This whale might have been signaling others about the massive quantities of prey in the water column. Let's hope so.
PHOTOS from the 8/26/2020 trip
|
Wednesday September 2, 2020
Breaching, lob-tailing, flipper slapping humpback and more!
Our 9th trip of 2020 was difficult at first, but ultimately it did not disappoint. Just as in the past few trips, a small humpback would blow and dive, with dive times over 10 minutes long. We stayed with this whale and a few inshore bottlenose dolphins but decided to head off and search elsewhere. It took a bit but just before 4PM in the distance (2 nautical miles) we saw a humpback lob-tailing (slamming its tail on the water) over and over again. We reached it and it continued lob-tailing, the whale eventually rolling onto its back and began flipper slapping, also repeatedly. In a short while, it began to breach repeatedly, interspersed with flipper slapping and logging (resting). Wow, what a wonderfully array of humpback behaviors to see. This whale in MTK.2019.07.31-01, a whale we saw on 7/31/19 1.34 nm ESE of where we saw it today.
|
Saturday September 5, 2020
Another amazing trip with humpbacks breaches and peduncle (tail) throws!
It was another great day of whale watching. Calms seas greeted us as we headed out past the Montauk Lighthouse. Soon after, we came upon a small humpback giving use may views as it was feeding close to shore as there were Atlantic Menhaden (commonly called bunker) everywhere. After everyone had plenty of views and pictures of this whale we headed south in search of more whales. We came across our second humpback of the day giving us some blows and not much else but we could see another humpback off in the distant putting on quite a show with lots of splashing. As we got closer, we had great views of our third humpback of the day with full-body breaching and lots of peduncle throws. Memory cards and cellphone certainly were filled up today.
PHOTOS from the 9/05/2020 trip
|
Sunday September 6, 2020
Oh my, 60 bottlenose dolphins and 8 humpbacks in al!
It was a little bouncy as we headed out in search of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises). We headed directly to where we had seen the whales yesterday, but we couldn't find them at first and we headed to another area. It took some time, but we decided to head NNE and Captain David Marmeno found a whale about 2.3 nautical miles (nm) from where yesterday's whales were. Once we found our first whale, we began seeing MANY more. We encountered one of Saturday's whales and stayed with and photographed 3 others within 1.1 square miles. We also encountered multiple groups of inshore bottlenose dolphins, about 60 individuals in all. On our way back to Montauk, we kept seeing more blows from 5 more whales within 1 nm in every direction but none directly in front of us. We wish we had more time. We will try again on Saturday September 12,2020
PHOTOS from the 9/06/2020 trip
|
Sunday September 13, 2020
Humpbacks, dolphins, and shearwaters! Oh my!
Our last 2020 trip continued our perfect season (100% success). Once again, our first humpback was a very small and elusive one, surfacing for a single blow and submerging for 9-11 minutes. We saw it fluke, but were never able to get photos of this whale. We headed on our way and encountered about 100 inshore bottlenose dolphins. Heading further east, we found our next whale, a juvenile humpback we'd seen back on 7/25/2020. We met up with another group of about 45 inshore bottlenose dolphins before coming across another humpback, one we'd originally seen on 7/31/2019, and again on 9/2/2020. The prey items in the water column were often very dense and either extended throughout the water, or hung to the bottom. We saw more shearwaters than we'd seen in a while, often circling above the surfacing whales.
|
| Purchase tickets here https://vikingfleet.com/activities/whale-watching/ |
CRESLI/Viking Fleet 2019 Whale Watch
2019 - 95.8% SUCCESS (23 OUT OF 24 TRIPS)
| DATE/REPORT |
Wednesday July 3, 2019
Basking shark, Ocean sunfish, and dolphins!
We started out just where we left off, still finding cetaceans on every trip - ~70 short-beaked common dolphins.
What a gorgeous day to be on the water. While it took sometime before we found interesting animals, we did indeed find all kinds of critters. A small basking shark was our first aquatic vertebrate and the first seen by many of our passengers. Shortly thereafter we found a small ocean sunfish that gave us great views of its swimming and jumping capability. A short while later we found our first aggregation of
about 30-40 short beaked common dolphins. This group was loaded with lots of, you guessed it, small dolphins. moms with calves and loads of juveniles.
Many of the adult dolphins were engaged in mating, a rare sight for most people. Perhaps that's why the young ones were all together. Ourt second aggregation of 30 dolphins were similarly "engaged." We also were able to find Wilson's storm petrels, Great shearwaters, Cory's shearwaters, Sooty shearwaters, and Manx shearwaters
70 Short-beaked common dolphins
1 Basking shark
|
Friday, July 5, 2019 A Big Minke Day
Today's Viking Fleet/CRESLI Whale watch started off with a dramatic fog bank that sweep over our boat as we were leaving the Montauk area. The thick fog soon fell away and we progressed through calm seas and sunny blue skies for the rest of the day. 1 Loggerhead sea turtle 25 Wilson Storm Petrels 1 Great shearwater
|
Sunday, July 7, 2019
Humpback whales, Kemp's Ridley sea turtle, and ocean sunfish!
What a special day we had – our first humpbacks of the season. The day was sunny, breezy, and chilly enough in the shade to make most of us wear sweatshirts, in other words a welcomed relief from the heat and humidity. We heard reports of whales off the Nappeague stretch, as well as further offshore. The NE winds helped us decide to head westward and we found whales off Ditch Plains. We first encountered a really small humpback, perhaps a calf or yearling. It was busy with searching for food on extremely long submersions. Later a larger humpback appeared and we stayed with it long enough to get excellent fluke shots and see some typical humpback behaviors. As we followed this whale to eastward for several miles, while doing so we had a brief encounter with a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle and an ocean sunfish. A nice day in every way!
2 Humpback whales
|
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Finback whale! 1st of this season, and another ocean sunfish
We left on a warm afternoon, looking forward to relief from the heat and to find whales. Both were accomplished. As soon as we got past Montauk lighthouse, we felt relief from the stifling heat on land. We had reports of whales inshore around Montauk and Cap’t. Dave saw a whale in the morning right where we had seen one on Sunday. The hazy fog and limited visibility made our task difficult. We eventually decided to head offshore into areas with more visibility. There we were able to find our 1st fin whale of 2019, a young (no more than 40’ long) and hungry one.
It was spending 9-13 minutes down feeding at 60-80 feet beneath the surface. We got great views and stayed with this whale until it was time to head back in. we came back late, but it was worth it.
1 fin whale
|
Friday, July 12, 2019
Minke Whale on a Beautiful DayWe left Montauk harbor today with beautiful blue skies and good visibility to search for whales and had just enough of a swell to give the passengers an exciting "ride". We cruised along the south shore of Montauk and enjoyed great views of the bluffs and hills. As usual we saw some pelagic seabirds, either skimming the waters or diving for fish and although we were several miles offshore we also had many butterflies fly past the ship.We then came upon a Minke whale, about 5 miles south of Montauk town. It surfaced several times in a few locations around the boat. Since there were patches of small fish under the ship we assume it was actively feeding. After leaving that whale we continued to cruise towards the southeast towards where we had recently seen whales, but had no luck with for the rest of this day. Totals: PHOTOS |
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Humpbacks Galore! Lunge-feeding, breaching, flipper slapping, and more
Our first multiple humpback trip. Once again, we escaped the heat on land to find whales in water that was comfortably in the mid to upper 60's. We began looking as soon as we traveled past Montauk light. Within a few minutes we found our first of 4 humpbacks. This one was intent on long feeding fives of prey near the surface and traveling due east without changing course. We got some nice views and ID photos and headed west to find more. Did we ever.
We found one humpback lunge-feeding on bunker (Atlantic menhaden) with an ocasional breach thrown in, as usual - spectacular to observe and hard to capture. we stayed with this animal for quite some time. This humpback was oblivious to us and once lunge-fed within a foot or two of our port bow.
Eventually we needed to head back, but were stopped when we encounterd 2 humpbacks logging (resting at the surface) together. At first, from afar we thought it might be a mom and calf, but these animals were almost the same size (one just slightly larger) - so not a cow/calf pair, but clearly an associated pair. One of the pair rolled over and flipper slapped for a bit. What a great trip - so many typical humpback behaviors, and so many people on board who had never seen a whale, let along 4 humpback whales, a blue shark, and an ocean sunfish.
Totals:
|
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Well, it was bound to happen. After 29 consecutive trips with whales or dolphins since July 2017, we were unable to find them today. The haze and occasional limited visibility made it difficult to spot then from a distance. We covered 45 nautical miles in our search but no whales or dolphins. There was bait, bunker, and a few pelagic birds, even an unidentified shark, and an ocean sunfish, but no cetaceans. We will try again on Friday 7/19/19.
One plus was the cool sea surface temperatures that kept us in sweatshirts, while folks were sweltering on land. Another plus was seeing a submarine heading out to sea.
Totals: |
Friday, July 19, 2019
Back with the Whales!
We are back on track! found bottlenose dolphins and fin whales!!
Today we left Montauk with clearing skies and a cool breeze. We traveled south and within an hour saw some splashes in front of us. This turned out to be a group of dolphins. These were the first bottlenose dolphins we have seen this year and they crossed right in front of our bow. The group stayed very tightly together as they moved around the boat, sometimes "porposing" out of the water. We stayed with them for some time before moving onward.
After another 45 minutes we spotted our first whale; a large fin whale. Fin whales are the second largest of the whales and second largest animal on the planet. We watched it as it continually dove down (we assume to feed on the thick bands of small baitfish under the boat) and surfaced with that long conical blow so characteristic of fin whales.
After proceeding south from Montauk we came upon 2 more fin whales, again feeding through thick bands of baitfish, about 50 feet below the surface. We finished our day cruising back along the south shore, close in to the cliffs and bluffs, before rounding the point and returning to Montauk.
Totals:
|
Sunday, July 21, 2019
Humpback action!
Once again we headed out to find whales, and as soon as we got past Montauk Lighthouse and onto the Atlantic Ocean, we were out of the heat! Sea surface temperatures were in the upper 60’s, a welcome relief.
Totals:
|
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
100 bottlenose dolphins to start, humpback and more bottlenose to end!
When we start our whale watch trip with unlimited visibility on sunny dry afternoon, we have great expectations. We hadn’t even gotten past the Lighthouse when we found a massive aggregation of inshore bottlenose dolphins – over 100! We watched and followed as they were chasing their prey, driving them into tight circles and then diving. Adults, juveniles, and new born calves were all around us. What a beautiful sight.
We left them to continue their journey and ours, and headed towards where we had been seeing humpbacks whales for the past few weeks. We found a good sized humpback and stayed with it, observed it, photographed its dorsal fin and flukes for ID purposes. We were in neutral and ready to leave but the whale had other plans, it decided to swim right up next to us, along the port sight, then under us, and come back on the starboard side. Needless to say, we couldn’t move until the whale moved away. Nobody complained.
We headed a bit further offshore and began to encounter pelagic birds, rafts of Cory’s shearwaters, a few Great shearwaters, and a few aggregations of Wilson’s storm petrels too. Shortly thereafter we found a pair of whales swimming together. As we found a few weeks ago, these whales, staying right next to each other were not mom and calf, as you might expect, but of similar size (about 36 feet (11 meters). We were able to stay with them for quite some time and got great photos, videos, and recollections. Again, almost nobody on board had seen whales or dolphins before and were just as happy as can be.
Totals:
115 Bottlenose dolphins
|
Friday, July 26, 2019
Bottlenose dolphins, Minke whale, and Finback whale!
Today's CRESLI/Viking Fleet whale watch left Montauk Harbor with clear blue skies and calm seas. Cruising for less than an hour southeast of Montauk we came upon 2 groups of dolphins. There were about 15 bottlenose dolphins all told and we watched them for 45 minutes as they socialized around the boat. These dolphins all were side by side as they put on an energetic display. They were splashing, spy-hopping, "lob-tailing" and did back flips in the water. Their behavior was all about social bonding and perhaps establishing dominance within the group. Our passengers took some great photos of the dolphins with the cliffs of Montauk in the background.
|
Sunday, July, 28, 2019
Bottlenose dolphins to start; humpback to end
We had a long trip today with a sold out boat. We escaped the heat right away as we turned east at the jetty. Found 2 small groups of Bottlenose dolphins and a small ocean sunfish just west of the Lighthouse. We search nearshore and offshore, didn’t find much else until we began to get head back toward Montauk. At 6:30 we saw something flash off in the distance and the blow of a humpback about 2 miles ahead of us. It was doing inverted lob-tailing, partial breaching, tails throws, etc. and as we got closer a small fishing boat ran super-fast right to the whale, stopped way too close. The whale reacted by diving and tail-throwing once – then took off to the southwest, with 5-6 minute down times and just surfacing a few blows each time and heading away. Had that vessel not harassed the whale, it would have continued its behaviors. It was spectacular to see this active whale, but to see it chased down by those jerks in the small boat was upsetting to all. All-in-all, a long but successful trip. Even though we got back at 8:10 PM, people loved it. BOATERS, REMEMBER TO NEVER CHASE DOWN WHALES! GIVE WHALES THEIR SPACE! Totals 10 Bottlenose Dolphins 1 Humpback Whale 1 Ocean Sunfish 3 Wilson Storm Petrels 1 Great Shearwater Common Terns Great Black-Backed Gulls Herring Gulls PHOTOS |
Wednesday, July, 31, 2019
3 Humpbacks, pod of bottlenose dolphins, and a minke whale!!
Once again, we left the sweltering heat and cooled off almost immediately after leaving the harbor (sea surface temperatures have been in the upper 60's to low 70's for a while). We headed towards an area where dolphins had been seen earlier, but they had move on, as nomadic dolphins almost always do. We then headed off towards one of our known whale feeding areas, and there we encountered 2 large humpbacks swimming, diving, and obviously feeding together, we also see a small pod of bottlenose dolphins. We see a third humpback. The 3rd whale heads North and we stay with the pair. Their prey are in bands from the surface to 50' below, and they're spending feeding below and occasionally defecating at the surface. One of the whales is a known whale from the Gulf of Maine, Komodo, the 2007 calf of Rune, the other remains to be identified. We headed in search of the 3rd humpback but were unsuccessful but eventually found a minke whale, just before heading back to the dock. An amazing time for everyone. Totals 15 Bottlenose Dolphins 3 Humpback Whales 1 Minke Whale 5 Wilson Storm Petrels PHOTOS |
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Whale Trifecta! 2 Minke whales, 5 humpback whales (including a mom and calf), and a finback whale! 8 whales in all!
What do you get when you have unlimited visibility, flat seas, and good eyes? Lots of whales. Shortly after heading out past the Lighthouse, we spot our first whale, a minke whale. They are relative small baleen whales and this one was not only small, but also entangled in fishing gear. The gear was loosely wrapped, but still obviously having an effect. The Coast Guard was notified, they in turn notified the Center for Coastal Studies Totals: 2 Minke Whales 1 Finback Whale 5 Humpback Whales 5 Wilson’s Storm Petrels 1 Immature Northern Gannet PHOTOS |
Wednesday, August 07, 2019
Breaching Humpbacks, Minkes, and a few Great shearwaters and a mature Northern gannet!
Another beautiful day on the water with whales, what more can you want? Our minkes were “stinky” and avoided being photographed, but were seen none-the-less. Our humpbacks showed us most of their repertoire of aerial behaviors. Our first pair of humpbacks included one whale (MN.CRESLI.2019.07.14-04) that’s been seen by us for the past 4 weeks, each time in close association (swimming synchronously and within a body width of the other whale) with a different humpback. Interesting! At one point MN.CRESLI.2019.07.14-04 and MN.CRESLI.2019.08.07-01 breached together, not 100’ in front of us, and a few seconds later, MN.CRESLI.2019.08.07-01 breached by itself. WOW. We left those whales and traveled our searching pattern, finding whales a few miles away- another pair? Yes, but - there’s MN.CRESLI.2019.08.07-02 with MN.CRESLI.2019.07.14-04. Incredible – another associated pair that includes MN.CRESLI.2019.07.14-04. That’s some gregarious whale. Totals: 3 Humpback whales 2 Minke whales 2 Great Shearwaters 1 Mature Northern Gannet PHOTOS |
Friday August 9, 2019
Whales and Dolphins Too... Again!
The CRESLI/Viking Fleet whale watch left Montauk on a beautiful day with blue skies and unlimited viability. We were only a mile south of the lighthouse when we saw our first blow and came upon our first whale. It was a young humpback whale and we followed it for almost an hour as it remained in the area. The passengers got some nice photos of the whale with the cliffs of Montauk in the background. Totals: 3 Humpback Whales 18 Bottlenose Dolphins 2 Great Shearwaters PHOTOS |
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Finback whales and humpback whales
A little sea mist on the horizon had everyone on board the Viking Starship becoming a spotter. Captain Dave began his search East of Montauk and we were soon rewarded with a large Finback whale feeding. A beautiful cone-shaped blow and the incredible power of this marine mammal enchanted everyone on board. Next we found a 2 Humpback whales feeding and got a fabulous tail wave. This is a whale we have seen before. We also managed to see a Blue Shark that was feeding near the Humpback whales. As we continued our search we were able to see a few Minke whales nearer the Montauk Lighthouse. We had reports of a cow-calf pair of Minkes, but were unable to confirm. Birds of note today included A Cory's Shearwater and a number of Wilson's Storm Petrels dancing on the waves and surface feeding PHOTOS |
Friday, August 16, 2019
A Humpback, a Minke and a Fin Whale...
It was a good day for a whale watch with great visibility and clearing skies as the CRESLI/Viking Fleet whale watch left Montauk harbor. After some time we spotted a tall blow in the distance. As we closed we saw it was a fin whale. This lone animal was about 40 feet in length, not large for these whales. It remained in this one area with a regular series of 4 surface breaths and then dives down, most likely to feed on the small fish our sonar saw close to the bottom. We got some nice looks at this animal as we stayed with it for some time. After continuing our search we discovered another species of whale, a young humpback. It was swimming slowly at the surface, sometimes "logging", and we all got some nice looks. As we continued on our search we saw a breach in the distance as a whale leapt from the water and so the boat went to investigate. This turned out to be a Minke whale, the smallest of the rorqual whales. After another trip where we hit the 3 species "whale trifecta" we headed back to harbor. Totals 1 Humpback Whale 1 Minke Whale 1 Fin Whale 13 Wilson Storm Petrels PHOTOS |
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Spectacular Humpback Whale Breaching
We left Montauk today with clearing skies and very calm seas. There was a report of a humpback whale a short distance from Montauk Point and we went looking for that whale first. After 30 minutes it proved easy to see as the humpback was breaching in the distance and creating huge white splashes of water. We approached this young animal and were treated to several bouts of breaching. It lunged its entire body length out of the water over and over - for a remarkable 30 plus breaches. In between breaching (and delighting the passengers) the whale stayed lounging on the surface and continually "flipper-slapped" the water, creating a sharp "crack" sound with each hit. Totals 4 Humpback Whales 2 Minke Whales 2 Bottlenose Dolphins 1 Sooty Shearwater 1 Wilson Storm Petrel 3 Greater Shearwaters PHOTOS |
Friday, August 23, 2019
A Spectacular Day with the Whales
What can you say about a trip where we saw 11 humpback whales, 2 other whale species and dolphins! Totals 11 Humpback Whales 15 Bottlenose Dolphins 1 Fin Whale 2 Minke Whales 3 Cory Shearwaters PHOTOS |
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Whales Close to Montauk
What started out as a cloudy and someone rainy trip turned into a productive day of whale watching. After less than an hour we spotted some big splashes in the distance- there was a whale breaching and flipper slapping. Unfortunately by the time we got to the area, with the overcast background, we were unable to find the whale. We continued on our way and suddenly came upon 2 humpback whales and 18 bottlenose dolphin. There was a lot of surface bait fish and the whales were feeding.The dolphins came into our area in 2s and 3s until there was a big group. They swam around the feeding whales for some time and some passengers got some special pictures with a whale and dolphin in the same photo! They showed us some fun behaviors such as leaping or "porpoising" out of the water. A minke whale joined this group and we got a few quick looks. TOTALS 4 humpback whales 3 minke whales 18 bottlenose dolphins PHOTOS |
Friday, August 30, 2019
A Beautiful Day with Whales all Around
Today was a sunny , beautiful day as we set out again in search of whales. We only had to round Montauk Point and cruise along the south shore for 40 minutes before seeing our first whale blowing. This turned out to be a humpback whale, in very shallow water (50 feet) making shallow feeding dives. The water was literally teeming with giant schools of bait fish, menhaden, at the surface. The whale was only going down for a bit over 2 minutes as it's food was right at the surface. Totals 7 humpbacks 5 fin whales 1 minke whale PHOTOS |
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Great way to end our season!
Great trip today started with a humpback whale 15 minutes past the lighthouse. Spotted two identified whales while watching this humpback. After leaving humpback whale we came across 2 Finback whales. Approximately 12 bottlenose dolphins joined the two Finback whales for a brief time. After leaving the Finback whales we came across our second humpback whale fluking several times. This whale also gave us some flipper slapping which everyone enjoyed. We continued our search for more marine life to find blowes off in the distance from to different whales. Unfortunately unable to identify the whales as they disappeared as we approached. Totals: 2 Humpback Whales 2 Finback whales 4 unidentified whales 12 bottlenose dolphins PHOTOS |
CRESLI/Viking Fleet 2018 Whale Watch Reports
Sunday July 1, 2018
Wow! What a way to start the season! Dolphins and WhalesOur first trip was a success. We had reports and coordinates for hundreds of dolphins and a minke whales sighted this morning and a humpback sighted yesterday. Off we went to find them and we did. The minke was “stinky minke” seen by just a few people. As we continued searching, we found a large aggregation of about 100 short-beaked common dolphins. The aggregation included adults, juveniles, and calves.We left the dolphins and headed towards the coordinates for the humpback. We found it about an hour later. Its dorsal fin was partially gone probably due to an entanglement. It was diving often and searching for food. We stayed in the area and the whale consistently came up ¼ to ½ half mile away. Fluke shots were taken for identification and it was a eventually time to leave. We got back to the dock late but everyone was exhilarated and everyone had a wonderful afternoon. Totals: ~100 short-beaked common dolphins 1 Minke Whale 1 humpback whale 8-10 Great Shearwaters 15-20 Cory’s Shearwaters 5-10 Sooty Shearwaters 25-30 Wilson’s Storm Petrels 10 Manx Shearwaters PHOTOS |
Sunday July 8, 2018
3 Species of Whale, 1 Species of Dolphin, and 11 species of Pelagic and Coastal Birds!What an amazing day on the water. We had reports of whales from Saturday, but we had friends out there and said there weren’t seeing anything. With no information except our 30 year knowledge of whale feeding areas near Montauk, Captain Dave Marmino and Naturalist Dr. Artie Kopelman formulated a plan and headed to an area that has almost always has been productive. Within an hour of passing Montauk Light, we had our first minke whale. Like other minkes, this one was elusive. As we were waiting for the minke to resurface, we saw the blows from a larger whale about 1.5 nautical miles (nm) away. Off we headed to find our second species - humpback whale. The humpback breached about 1 nm ahead of us, we were able to stay with this whale for 40 minutes as it circled, traveled, and dove over a 3.5 nm path . We got great views of the ID patterns on the ventral side of the flukes. From this point we saw the massive blows of a fin whale ½ nm away (our 3rd baleen whale species)! The fin whale was only about 50’ long and had easily seen entanglement scars on its right flank and harder to see shallow propeller scars on its back just in front of its dorsal fin. About ½ mile from the fin whales we saw an aggregation of about 60 short-beaked common dolphins and spent the next 20 mi9nutes being amazed by the dolphins as they rode our bow and swam and porpoised all around. What a day! Totals: 1 minke whale 1 humpback whale 1 finback whale 60 short-beaked common dolphins 98 Cory's Shearwater 53 Great Shearwater 14 Sooty Shearwater 4 Manx Shearwater 148 Wilson's Storm-Petrel 1 Northern Gannet 8 Double-crested Cormorant 7 Laughing Gull 130 Herring Gull 121 Great Black-backed Gull Bird totals thanks to Taylor Sturm PHOTOS |
Wednesday July 11, 2018
2 Species of Whale and 5 species of Pelagic Birds!2018 is starting out right where we left off in 2017, with 100% success in finding whales! A beautiful, yet cool and windy day, with a large swell from a distant ofshore storm, gave us a day with good visibility and really 'tricky' whales. We had reports of whales to the east of Block Island, too far for us to do anything but drive out, look for 30 minutes, and drive back. on our way to Sunday's whales grounds, we got a report of several whales south of Block Island, only about 7 miles from where we were on Sunday. Off we went. Our first two whales were "stinky" minkes, with just a few of us seeing the whales and their dive times were VERY long. Luckily we saw two whales about 1.5 miles ahead of us, one with characterstic massive finback whale blow, the other was less prominent. We found a large fin whale and a minke feeding in this area several miles south of the Deep Water wind farm. The whales, pelagic birds, and coastal birds were feeding on large quantities of prey from the surface to about 50 feet down. The whale down times were long, but we did manage to get good photos of the fin whale. Totals: 3 minke whales 1 finback whale ~65 Wilson's Storm-Petrels ~60 Cory's Shearwaters several Scopoli's Shearwaters ~30 Great Shearwaters 4 Sooty Shearwaters 1 Manx Shearwater PHOTOS |
Sunday July 15, 2018
A trip for the ages! 18-20 Humpbacks and 8 fin whales feeding voraciously!We had reports of whales feeding not far from Montauk Point, so we headed to the area we were in the reports. Less that an hour from the dock we found our first of nearly 30 whales!! Humpbacks and finback were feeding on massive quantities of sand eels. We’re used to seeing bubble feeding humbacks on our trips to the Great South Channel, not necessarily near Montauk, but there they were. In fact, many of the humpbacks were photographed are know members of the Gulf of Maine stock – and obviously aren’t in the GOM. We saw bubble rings, bubble mists, Kick-feeding, and open-mouth surface filtering humpbacks galore. There were breaching and flipper slapping humpbacks too. The fin whales were surface lunging and rolling sideways into concentrations of prey right at the surface. We were surrounded by whales feeding non-stop for 2 hours. An amazing trip!Totals 18-20 humpback whales 8 finback whales ~100 Wilson’s Storm petrels ~30 Sooty shearwaters ~150 Cory’s shearwaters ~80 Great shearwaters 2 Manx shearwaters PHOTOS |
Wednesday July 18, 2018
Whales, whales, and more whales!We returned to the area where we found the whales feeding on sand eels on 7/15/18 and the whales, sand eels, and pelagic birds were still there, with new additions! We found 2 minke whales, 4 finback whales, and about 15-20 humpback whales again, feeding voraciously on sand eels. Some of the humpbacks from Sunday were still there including Columbia, Dome, and Reaper, and they were joined by many new ones including W, a whale known to spend sometimes part of the summer in the Bay of Fundy. Why go to Fundy when you can hang out near Montauk and feed-up on tons of sand eels. In our last 2 trips we've photographed 19 different humpbacks including: Columbia Combat Coral Dome Ganesh Reaper W!Totals 15-20 humpback whales 4 finback whales 2 minke whales >100 Sooty shearwaters >100 Cory’s shearwaters >100 Great shearwaters In our last 2 trips we've photographed 19 different humpbacks including: Columbia Combat Coral Dome Ganesh Glo-Stick Jigsaw Multiply Reaper Reflection W PHOTOS |
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
More humpback whales!It had been a week since we were out last. We wondered whether the stormy weather had affected the prey distribution and whales, but had reports of whales, and Capt. David Marmino had seen whales earlier in the day while fishing. We headed out, and chose a path that would provide the most comfortable conditions when we reached the whale grounds. It was a bouncy ride out, but well worth the effort. It took a few hours of travelling and searching and we found humpback whales again near where we had seen them a few weeks ago. Although we saw blows from about 6 whales, only 2 were close enough to identify – these were whales we had never seen before: an unnamed calf of Photon; and Nile, a grand old dame of the Gulf of Maine Stock of humpbacks. Nile was first seen 31 years ago, and had been seen 5 days earlier on the southern edge of Stellwagen Bank National marine Sanctuary(Massachusetts), 170 miles away swimming around the Cape and Nantucket (34 miles per day). Wow.Totals: 6 humpback whales including: Nile Unnamed calf of Photon ~200 Cory’s Shearwaters ~80 Great Shearwaters ~50 Sooty Shearwaters ~20 Wilson’s Storm Petrels PHOTOS |
Sunday, July 29, 2018
4 Cetacean species day!Well we found them again. Finback whales, minke whales, humpback whales, and short-beaked common dolphins. The whales weren’t particularly “cooperative,” spending long times down feeding near the sea floor, but they are there to feed. We found 5 finback whales including 2 mom/calf pairs, 5 humpbacks, 2 minkes whales, and about 150 dolphins. The dolphin rode our bow wake and rode the bow wakes of some of the fin whales. Birders on board were happy to find loads of pelagic birds too.Totals: 5 finback whale 5 humpback whales 2 minke whales 150 short-beaked common dolphins 125 Cory’s shearwaters 40 Great shearwaters 5 Sooty shearwaters 4 Manx shearwaters 7 Parasitic jaegers 1 immature Northern gannet PHOTOS |
Wednesday, August 01, 2018
5 species of dolphins and whales!Another successful Viking Fleet/CRESLI whale watch on the Viking Starship! This time, we were able to find finback whales, minke whales, and humpback whales, as well as bottlenose dolphins and short-beaked common dolphins – 5 different species! The whales were spending long times down feeding near the bottom, the action of the dolphins made up for the relatively uninteresting whale behavior. Porpoising, bow riding, and high jumping happened in the bottlenose dolphins that started our day about ½ hour after passing Montauk Lighthouse. Whales and dolphins kept up busy for the next 3 hours, non-stop, ending with a massive aggregation of common dolphins. Another wonderful trip.Totals: 2 finback whale 3 humpback whales 3 minke whales 150 Bottlenose dolphins 100 short-beaked common dolphins 75 Cory’s shearwaters 25 Great shearwaters 2 Manx shearwaters 1 Parasitic jaeger PHOTOS |
Sunday August 5, 2018
Finback whales and Minke whalesWe headed out to check for whales where we’d been seeing them for the past few weeks. It was wonderful to get offshore and away from the heat, and even more wonderful when we found our first of 5 finback whales and 3 minke whales. We found the whales feeding on sand eels near the sea floor and as the sand eels rose in the water column to great densities we found more whales. Ultimately 3 singleton fin whales (40, 60, and 75 feet long, respectively) and one mom/calf pair. Intersperse among these larger baleen whales we found 3 minke whales. We headed back in to search for dolphins that were seen earlier but they were not found. All-in-all a great trip!Totals 5 finback whales (including 1 mom/calf pair) 2 minke whales 16 Cory’s Shearwater 27 Great Shearwater 1 Sooty Shearwater 12 Double-crested Cormorant 2 Parasitic Jaeger 11 Laughing Gull 42 Herring Gull 25 Great Black-backed Gull 7 Least Tern 122 Common Tern 5 Royal Tern 1 Fish Crow Bird Count via Arie Gilbert PHOTOS |
Wednesday August 8, 2018
7 humpbacks and 1 fin whale!We found whales again. As usual, when it’s warm on land, we were glad to get offshore, but it was still pretty warm. We didn’t have to go far to find our first whales – 2 humpbacks, a mom and her calf. The mom had been seen by us 1 month earlier about 7 nm further east. She and her calf were our first of 7 humpbacks for the day. These whales were thin and feeding, a must for them this time of year. The calf showed signs of having been entangled, but no gear could be seen, so the calf had also been freed of its entanglement. We continued to find humpbacks whales throughout the trip, including several that were also relatively thin. We got ID photos from most (underside of flukes) and are checking against our catalog for LI, as well as others from NYC, the Gulf of Maine, and Mid-Atlantic. We found an incredibly rare Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle and heard about whales east of our location and headed there to find more humpbacks and a young finback whale. While there, we heard of dolphins in Fort Pond Bay and decided to head in to look for them. We didn’t find the dolphins, but found lots of bait and birds (terns, gulls, and shearwaters). Another amazing trip!Totals 7 humpback whales 1 finback whale 1 Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle 35 Cory’s shearwaters 5 Great shearwaters 1 Sooty shearwater 1 Manx shearwater 1 Parasitic jaeger 10 Semipalmated plovers PHOTOS |
Wednesday August 15, 2018
3 species of whales again!!We had some reports of whales and headed towards those coordinates, but didn’t find them. Off we went to the areas where we have been successful on previous trips, and once again found whales. A mom and calf fin whale – were amazing to watch. Their grace and beauty were evident and we were privileged to watch the calf nursing. What a beautiful thing to observe. We found a minke whale out here as well.It was eventually time to head back, but we were stopped I our tracks by a small humpback. Shortly thereafter we found a trio of fin whales exactly where we had been searching hours earlier. What an amazing day on the water.Totals 5 fin whales 1 humpback whale 1 minke whale 15 Great Shearwaters 5 Cory’s Shearwaters 2 Sooty Shearwaters 1 Max Shearwater 1 Wilson’s Storm Petrel PHOTOS |
Wednesday August 22, 2018
Crazy Breaching Young HumpbackOur streak of successfully finding whales continues (12 consecutive trips in 2018, 8 in 2017); 122 out of 132 trips since 2009 (92.42%). This trip brought us westward and we found a young humpback breaching like crazy. From afar, we saw 5 breaches - later when nearer this whale, but still about 400 yards away, we watched it breach 18 consecutive times within a 3 minute period. Two whales had been seen in this area for the prior 2 days. Could this young whale wave been using the sounds produced by breaching to send a non-vocal signal to the other? Probably. We stayed with this whale as long as we could, then searched for others to no avail. Still, it was a spectacular trip.Totals: 1 humpback whale 10 Great Shearwaters 2 Cory's Shearwaters PHOTOS |
Sunday August 26, 2018
Humpbacks, fin whales, and minke whales againOur 21st consecutive trip with whales started with a breaching humpback near Montauk. This young humpback, like so many others showed signs of entaglement. We headed to another area (about 11 nm out) where we found 2 whales that we believe were fin whales, but couldn't get good enough views to confirm absolutely. On our way back in, we found another breaching, flipper slapping humpback and a minke whale.Totals 2 humpbacks 2 fin whales 1 minke whale 12 Cory's Shearwaters 1 Scopoli's Shearwater 4 Great Shearwaters PHOTOS |
Wednesday August 29, 2018
Whales throughout the day!We had another spectacular day. We began the trip by surveying an area SW of Montauk where whales have been consistently spotted. The day started slowly until we spotted several huge bait balls of small fish at the surface. We immediately spotted several minke whales. Typically for minkes they would briefly surface than disappear. A good sized hammerhead shark cruised within an arms length of the boat to the excitement of some of our younger passengers. We saw a few blows in the area and soon a large fin whale crossed directly in front of our bow and treated us to a thrilling view. The activity picked up as several humpback whales of various ages were also feeding in the area and we spent considerable time with them. As we started to return to Montauk we had to stop again as we were treated to 3 humpback whales breaching repeatedly. We finally had to say goodbye and returned to the dock a bit late – Not that any of the happy passengers minded!TOTALS 6 Minke Whales 1 Fin Whale 5 Humpback Whales 1 Hammerhead Shark 3 Cory's Shearwaters PHOTOS |
Sunday September 2, 2018
2 whales, 2 different species!We had perfect conditions, unlimited visibility, 2 feet seas, and clear skies. We headed towards whales had been seen earlier, but saw none. We headed through the areas where we had been seeing whales all summer and saw none, unfortunately. We began to turn towards Montauk and a minke whale popped up right in front of us. It surfaced a bunch of times and allowed many people to view it, albeit briefly. We continued back towards Montauk and at 6:30, we saw the high billowing blow of a larger whale. We found a 1.5-2-year old humpback that we had seen on 8/8/18 (nearly 1 month earlier and about 5 nautical miles SSW), Scylla’s 2016 calf. We spent a while with this whale, but had to leave – we were late enough as is. On our way back to the dock we were able to see a beautiful sunset. Another successful trip. Totals 1 minke whale 1 humpback whale 8 Cory’s shearwaters 2 Scopoli’s shearwaters 1 hammerhead shark PHOTOS |
CRESLI/Viking Fleet 2017 Whale Watch
Sunday July 2, 2017
Wow! What a way to start the season!Things started slowly, with little action until we saw the Ocean Sunfish. Shortly thereafter, we began to see large numbers of shearwaters and petrels and we got a report of whales just 1.5 miles directly ahead of us. We found 5 fin whales there, spreadout over a half a mile, including a mom and calf (our first whales) and 3 others. There was bait on the water from 50-170 feet down. We began to head home and found 3 more fin whales and 1 minke whale. It was an incredible first trip! A perfect day!Totals: 8 Fin Whales 1 Minke Whale 1 Ocean Sunfish 1 Blue Shark 46 Great Shearwaters 80 Cory’s Shearwaters 25 Sooty Shearwaters 120 Wilson’s Storm Petrels 4 Manx Shearwaters 1 South Polar Skua 1 Black Tern Bird counts thanks to Anthony Collerton PHOTOS |
July 9, 2017
Whales, dolphins, sunfish, and a sea turtle. What a day we had! An amazing trip-even better than last week's.We saw 11 fin whales, 500 dolphins, a loggerhead turtle and lots of action and pelagic birds. We were headed to a spot around 15 nautical miles away but began to find whales closer. Our first whales were a cow/calf pair with the calf logging (sleeping) at the surface and the mother was searching for food. This pair we had seen a week earlier 10 miles to the southwest. The calf was logging (sleeping) just under the surface. After a while with them, we headed further out and found another cow/calf pair that were staying close to each other as we would expect because the calf was small and young, diving together, swimming together. The calf decided to come close and roll over next to us and swim across our bow twice. Mom decided to swim between us and the calf, the calf swam around mom and moved next to us again. We left them to find yet another cow/calf pair and then several other singleton fin whales. These whales were joined with 500 short-beaked common dolphins. All were feeding . One fin whale came up and did a sideways surface feeding lunge. We found and stayed with another cow/calf pair until it was time to head back even though we were surrounded by fin whales in all directions all around us. Everyone had a great day!Totals: 11 Fin Whales 500 Short Beaked common dolphins 1 Loggerhead turtles 1 Ocean sunfish 300 Great shearwaters 300 Cory’s shearwaters 10 Sooty shearwaters 1 Manx shearwaters 100 Wilson’s storm petrels Bird counts thanks to Arie Gilbert and Pat Aitken PHOTOS and VIDEO |
July 16, 2017
Humpbacks, bottlenose dolphins, fin whale, and more!Another great whale watch trip! We started the day with a plan to head about 15 nautical miles from Montauk, where whales had been seen the day before. As we passed Montauk Lighthouse we received a report of dolphins and a whale about 3 miles from where we were. So, we headed there and a few miles later found our first humpback of the 2017 season, a young and active whale. There were about 200 inshore bottlenose dolphins, including many young ones swimming and feeding in the same area. This young whale surprised us all by doing a beautiful full body rotating breach. After 40 minutes and 4 miles with these animals, we headed further offshore to find more whales. Six miles later we found another young humpback, and 15 miles after that, a massive finback whale. Throughout the trip we encountered various fish, from an ocean sunfish to a hammerhead shark. We also found quite a lot of pelagic birds.Totals: 2 Humpback whales 1 Fin whale 1 Ocean sunfish 1 Hammerhead shark 200 Bottlenose dolphins (inshore population) 15 Cory's shearwaters 10 Great shearwaters 1 Sooty shearwater 300 Wilson's storm petrels 1 Northern Gannet (immature) PHOTOS |
July 23, 2017
4 Humpbacks! We are still at 100% success for 2017!We didn’t have to go far to find our first whale- right at the edge of town, shortly after turning west at the Lighthouse. It was a large, active humpback. Tail throws, flipper slapping and rolling over tail throws! There was lots of action as it fed on some bunker. Bunker was everywhere and we found 3 other humpback whales over the course of the next few hours from Gurneys to miles off of Ditch Plains. Our last humpback whale was one we had seen 6 nautical miles further south one week earlier. There were more humpbacks seen breaching off in the distance, but we we were unable to spend the time getting to them, There's always next week.Totals: 4 Humpbacks 10 Wilson’s Storm Petrels 20 Cory’s Shearwaters 1 Great Shearwater PHOTOS |
August 06, 2017
15 Humpbacks!! 100 Bottlenose Dolphins……Our streak of finding whales continues. This time, within 40 minutes of leaving the dock and about 10 minutes past Montauk Lighthouse we found the first of our 15 humpbacks! There was bait all over – mackerel, sand eels, and bunker. The first few whales were feeding on sand eels. The last were feeding on bunker. Single whales and mom/calf pairs were seen. Humpbacks breaching, tail throws, and flipper slaps happened. Oh, and loads of bottlenose dolphins too. It was an amazing day with non-stop whales for over 4 hours. Totals: 15 Humpback Whales 100 Inshore Bottlenose Dolphins 5 Cory’s Shearwaters 2 Wilson’s Storm Petrels 1 Mako shark PHOTOS VIDEO |
August 13, 2017
Can we find whales in the fog? YES WE CAN!The trip started out with clear skies and full visibility until some patchy fog rolled in. We had repeats of whales and when we got to the area, the fog lifted and we found our first humpback. Our second humpback showed up next to us as we travelled through foggy areas. We saw one farther off fin slapping, but lost that one in the fog as the near one lured for bunker. Our third humpback also feeding on bunker. When the fog had finally cleared we were able to watch it for a while as it selected dense large bunker patches and avoided smaller ones. A spectacular day again! Totals: 3 Humpback Whales 22 Great Shearwaters 76 Cory’s Shearwaters 153 Wilson’s Storm Petrels Bird counts courtesy of Taylor Sturm and Pete Morris PHOTOS |
August 20, 2017
We found whales again! Whales and a turtle.Shortly after passing the Lighthouse we found our first whale, a young humpback that we hadn't seen before. It stayed near us feeding for some time, totally ignoring our presence. It breached once surprising everyone pleasantly. After a while we left to find others. Our second whale was seen from a mile away breaching and flipper slapping. This one was also new to us. It stopped breaching and began logging (a resting behavior) for quite some time. We eventually left to look for others offshore. Before we left we found a loggerhead turtle. Around 2pm we headed back to the earlier area and found a third humpback also new, and older/larger than the rest. While with this humpback, a minke whale surfaced. It was time to leave, but what a great trip! Totals: 3 Humpback Whales 1 Minke whale 1 Loggerhead sea turtle 1 Manx Shearwater 5 Great Shearwaters 3 Cory’s Shearwaters 5 Wilson’s Storm Petrels PHOTOS |
August 27, 2017
Mom and calf humpbacks!
|
Sunday August 28, 2016
Breaching Whales & Dolphins! Oh, & Sea Turtles tooWe found our first whale - a young humpback very shortly after we passed Montauk Point. A few inshore bottlenose dolphins joined this young humpback. We eventually headed further out and found a minke whale. We headed back closser to shore and found a green sea turtle on the way. Then near our first whale area we found more. Another two humpbacks. One was a subadult, the other a juvenile. The last humpback was breaching, flipper slapping, than slapping for nearly 40 minutes - a wonderful show and a nice way to end the trip.Totals: 3 HUMPBACK WHALES 1 MINKE WHALE 6 INSHORE BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS 1 GREEN SEA TURTLE 1 UNKNOWN TURTLE 3 WILSON'S STORM PETRELS 2 CORY'S SHEARWATERS 1 GREAT SHEARWATER Photos |
Sunday August 21, 2016Long trip but no whales. We headed out and covered over 50 nautical miles but had no luck finding whales or dolphins. Even the balls of krill near Montauk Point had nothing feeding on them. We will try again next week.Totals: 46 WILSON'S STORM PETRELS 3 CORY'S SHEARWATERS 1 GREAT SHEARWATERS 7 RED NECKED PHALAROPES 5 OTHER PHALAROPES |
Sunday August 14, 2016It was a long hot trip, cooler than on land, but hot none the less! We covered over 52 miles, searching inshore and several offshore feeding areas looking for the whales that had been reported 2 days ago in our usual spots. No luck. No whales, no dolphins, no turtles, a few birds and a few sharks. Totals: 5 WILSON'S STORM PETRELS 2 CORY'S SHEARWATERS 25 GREAT SHEARWATERS 2 BLUE SHARKS |
Sunday August 7, 2016
Everywhere we went we found whales!3 Humpbacks, 2 Fin Whales, 1 Minke.The humpbacks were close in, near the shore, one on the way out and two on the way in. We also found a new mother/calf fin whale out where we had seen them before. Not may whales, but a nice variety of species. Totals: 2 FIN WHALES 1 MINKE WHALES 3 HUMPBACK WHALES 1 LOGGERHEAD TURTLE 25 YOUNG THRESHER SHARKS 50 WILSON'S STORM PETRELS 100 CORY'S SHEARWATERS 350 GREAT SHEARWATERS 5 SOOTY SHEARWATERS Photos |
Sunday July 31, 2016
Utterly Spectacular day again!We could hear a young child at the bow say "this was the most spectular day of my life". It was a trip to remember. Not just the 12 fin whales, 2 minkes and 40 common dolphins, but one of the 3 cow/calf fin whale pairs put on an amazing "show". They lunge fed and rolled over onto their sides, or upside down over and over again for about 30 minutes. Something that our seasoned (almost 30 years) naturalist (Dr. Artie Kopelman) had never seen before. Wow! Wait! As I write we found a humpback! This is a new humpback for us this year (our 2nd), it is another from the NYC catalog of Gotham Whale, NYC0031, but hasn't made it to the western NY Bight yet this year. What an amazing, spectacular, outrageously productive day.Totals: 12 FIN WHALES 2 MINKE WHALES 1 HUMPBACK (NYC0031) 40 SHORT-BEAKED COMMON DOLPHINS 35 WILSON'S STORM PETRELS 15 COREY'S SHEARWATERS 3 GREAT SHEARWATERS 2 SOOTY SHEARWATERS 1 NORTHERN GANNET PHOTOS VIDEO |
Sunday July 24, 2016
Another Multispecies Day! Humpback & Fin WhalesWe started the trip with reports of a humpback near the lighthouse. We found it, a young humpback that had been seen and photographed by Dr. Artie Kopelman in NY Harbor in late June (Gotham Whale Catalog #NYC0040). Later we headed to where we'd seen fin whales previously this year. This time we found them a little closer in. Again mom and calf pairs (2 Pairs) and seven other fin whales. On our way back we found the humpback once more near the lighthouse. As we left it breached behind us.Totals: 1 HUMPBACK WHALE (NYC0040) 11 FINBACK WHALES 20 CORY'S SHEARWATERS 10 WILSON'S STORM PETRELS 5 GREAT SHEARWATERS 1 OCEAN SUNFISH PHOTO SLIDESHOW Video |
Sunday July 17, 2016
Another Banner Day! Whales & DolphinsWe started in fog, but had reports of whales and knew (hoped?) the fog would lift. The fog lifted and whales were found. 8 fin whales were photographed along with a quick view of a minke. The whales were spread over a 2 mile radius. 4 mom/calf pairs of fin whales were great to see. On our way back 120 common dolphins.Totals: 8 FIN WHALES 1 MINKE WHALE 120 SHORT-BEAKED COMMON DOLPHINS 12 CORY'S SHEARWATERS 14 WILSON'S STORM PETRELS 1 MANX SHEARWATER 2 BLUE SHARKS PHOTOS MOBILE APP WITH PHOTOS |
Sunday July 10, 2016
SPECTACULAR TRIP!! 2 species of whales and 2 species of dolphinsToday's trip couldn't have been better! We found a leatherback and bottlenose dolphins (60) shortly after passing Montauk Light. Before 11:30am we found our fin whales. We spent time with 5 fin whales (1 singleton & 2 mother/calf pairs). There were 2 minkes and 3 other fin whales in the area. Great views of 5 fin whales were had. As we headed home, we found an aggregation of 120 short-beaked common dolphins. They swam to us and around us, rode our bow, vocalized and gave us a great chance to watch them. Also, tons of birds.Totals: 8 Fin whales 2 Minke whales 60 Inshore bottlenose dolphins 120 Short-beaked common dolphins 3 Manx Shearwaters 6 Great Shearwaters 13 Cory's Shearwaters 177 Wilson's Storm Petrels 1 Sooty shearwater 1 Leatherback Turtle 11 Short billed dowitchers Bird counts thanks to Frank Stetler and John Gluth PHOTOS |
Sunday July 3, 2016
Beautiful day on the water!It was a beautiful day on the water with some birds, a loggerhead turtle, but no whales or dolphins.Totals: 8 Manx Shearwaters 2 Great Shearwaters 10 Cory's Shearwaters 20 Wilson's Storm Petrels 1 Loggerhead Turtle 1 Ocean Sunfish |
Sunday Aug 30, 2015
We did it again! This time a young humpback whale. Our first of 2015!It took longer than usual and a different search pattern, but we found a whale. This was a young humpback that surprised us by breaching right in front of us when we were a 1/2 mile away. It breached a few more times before settling down. It was logging and feeding and would fluke occasionally.Totals 1 Humpback Whale - young, perhaps a calf 4 Northern Gannets 1 Cory's Shearwater 5 Red Necked Phalaropes Photos |
Sunday Sept 6, 2015
Dolphins, Humpback whales and more!
We are proud to say we've had 100% success for our 2015 Whale Watching season!Our season ended like it began with whales and dolphins! We started out with 100 inshore bottlenose dolphins and we stayed with them for an hour and got some great views. Then off we went to find more- we found a leatherback turtle, then we headed back towards the lighthouse and we found 2 humpback whales! WOW! Thank you to all the great customers and amazing crew from Cresli and the Viking Fleet! We had an AMAZING season!Totals: -100 Bottlenose dolphins -2 Humpback whales -1 Leatherback turtle -10 Great shearwaters -5 Cory's shearwaters -5 Phalaropes -1 Northern gannet Photos |
Sunday June 29, 2014: The whales are here!
Fin whales, humpback whales and dolphins! What a way to start the season!
We started with a sad sight of a dead leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) and hundreds of Wilson's storm petrels (Oceanites oceanicus) feeding on the decaying carcass. It was shortly thereafter that we saw our first group of 20 short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) as we headed towards where we were hearing reports of whales. Soon we saw another group of about 30 common dolphins, then a large group of about 120 of them. WOW!
Later we saw our first whale blows. Two fin whales kept us busy for quite some time. Our third fin whale showed up as we were trying to leave. Eventually we had to leave, but on the way back we passed two more fin whales and one humpback whale. They were two far away to head towards, but were seen none the less.
Here are the totals for our first trip of the 2014 season:
5 Fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus)
1 Humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae)
170 Short beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis)
300 Wilson's storm petrels (Oceanites oceanicus)
200 Great shearwaters (Puffinus gravis)
20 Cory's shearwaters (Calonectris diomedia)
1 Sooty shearwater (Puffinus griseus)
Sunday July 06, 2014: We found them again!
Fin whales, Minke whales and offshore bottlenose dolphins!
It was another amazing trip and a continuation of our phenomenal 100% sighting success since last year! We found "the mother load" of whales about 18 nautical miles from the point. Our first whale was a beautiful minke whale, followed shortly thereafter by a mother/calf pair of fin whales. While observing these, we saw blows all around us- perhaps a total of 12 fin whales. We spent time with the pair, then headed to another fin whale followed the pair to form a trio. We then spent time with another cow/calf pair for a bit. During our movements to observe the whales, we were surprised by a pod of offshore bottlenose dolphins (20). They rode our bow, took off and returned time and again to the delight of everyone on board.
Totals:
12 Fin Whales
20 offshore Bottlenose dolphins
50 Wilson's Storm Petels
40 Great Shearwaters
5 Corey's Shearwaters
1 Sooty Shearwater
100+ Common terns
Sunday July 13, 2014: We found them yet again!
Fin whales, Minke Whales, Common dolphins, and more
We were only 8 miles off Montauk Point when Captain Carl spotted the first whale, a lone fin whale traveling SW. We followed it for a while and it proved to be a great introduction to a day of whales and dolphins.
Shortly afterward a pod of 20 short-beaked common dolphins streaked over to our vessel and spent some time bow riding and “porpoising ” alongside the Starship, to the delight of the passengers. The children aboard especially liked seeing the mothers and babies as the pod visited us several times over the course of a half hour. We continued SE, seeing shearwaters and storm petrels, and stopped to watch the antics of a 4 foot long ocean sunfish alongside the boat.
As we made a long turn back to Montauk we found several other whales actively feeding. The three fin whales included a cow/calf pair and we stopped and observed them for some time. A smaller minke whale was also diving to feed on the scattered pockets of small fish below us. Another (or some of the earlier?) pod of common dolphins joined us too and there was a lot of action around the boat. Sadly our time was up and we headed back to Montauk to disembark a happy group of whale watchers.
Totals
4 Fin Whales
1 Minke Whale
1 Ocean Sunfish
30 Common Dolphins
3 Cory Shearwaters
3 Greater Shearwaters
20 Wilson Storm Petrels
Sunday July 20, 2014: EPIC TRIP on the Viking Starship!!
Fin whales, minke whales, bottlenose dolphins & ocean sunfish!
The day started with about 150 bottlenose dolphins just outside jetty and over towards Shagwong. We went offshore to find whales where they had been reported. Our first whales were mother/calf pair of fin whales, then a minke, then we started seeing blows everywhere! There were whales in every direction. We eventually were able to get up and photograph 15 fin whales including 4 calf's with their moms. 2 minke whales, and we also saw an ocean sunfish just before the rain got heavy. What an AMAZING trip!
Totals
15 Fin whales (with many others in the area)
2 Minke whales
150 Inshore bottlenose dolphins
1 Ocean sunfish
100 Wilson's storm petrels
15 Cory's Shearwaters
1 Great Shearwater
Photos
Wednesday July 30, 2014: Still at 100%
Bottlenose Dolphins, Loggerhead, Leatherbacks, Ocean Sunfish & More!
Our 100% Success at finding cetaceans continues. We found inshore bottlenose dolphins shortly after passing the Lighthouse. A group of 10, tthat joined with joined with 20 others. The group included lots of young dolphins swimming with their moms. We headed out further and found a young loggerhead sea turtle, Later we found flying fish, a hammerhead shark, a Mola mola (Ocean Sunfish), and a small leatherback passed by us. We found no baleen whales, but had a good trip none the less. WOW! We found another leatherback near the lighthouse and got great views of it feeding on jellyfish.
Totals
30 Inshore bottlenose dolphins
2 Leatherback turtles
1 Loggerhead sea turtle
1 Hammerhead shark
1 Ocean Sunfish
120 Wilson's storms petrels
50 Greater Shearwaters
10 Corey's Shearwaters!
Photos
Sunday August 3, 2014: Still at 100%
Humpback whale!
We decide to head west and then south towards some reported sightings. On our way west, we saw a few blows off about 2 miles away. As we turned toward the whale, we saw it do a full body breach - a beautiful sight! We stayed with that whale for some time. It was busy feeding at the bottom, with 5-7 minute down times. It fluked just a few times, but gave us some nice views anyway. After a while we decided to move on search for others. The ride was fun, kids were having a ball on the rolls and dips. All was fine, until the rain, which kept getting stronger as we searched. No more whales, but lots of happy and wet passengers.
Totals:
1 Humpback whale
40 Wilson's storm petrels
12 Cory's shearwaters
2 Great shearwaters
1 shark (unknown species)
Photos
Wednesday August 6, 2014: We did it again! Whales!!
Minke and fin whales
Our 100% Success at finding cetaceans continues. We started the day finding a very elusive minke whale- a real 'Stinky' minke that dove and disappeared as we approached. We continued to search and were rewarded by finding a large fin whale south & east of Block Island. This whale provided us with great opportunities to see both right & left side, as well as its head.The 70 foot female fin whale was one we saw last year with a calf. This year she is was back again.
Totals
1 Minke Whale
1 Fin Whale
30 Wilson's Storm Petrels
7 Cory's Shearwaters
6 Red-necked Phalaropes
Photos
Sunday August 10, 2014: Yes!!! fin whales!!!
3 new fin whales
We headed east towards where we had seen whales on Wednesday and where colleagues had seen whales yesterday. As we headed a little over half way there we saw our first blows. A small fin whale was ahead of us- then a larger fin whale blow behind us! This was a mother/ calf pair. They eventually joined each other and surfaced near us when a third fin whale joined the pair. The 3 whales stayed together briefly then seperated. We were able to spend time with each of the 3 whales. As we headed back we encountered a hammerhead shark that gave us great views. It had a hook in its mouth, either it had been caught and released or broke free. In any event, it seemed to be doing okay.
Totals:
3 Fin Whales
1 Hammerhead shark
1 Ocean Sunfish
10 Wilson's Storm Petrels
50 Cory's Shearwaters
Photos
Sunday August 17, 2014: Another Spectacular Day!
Fin whales, Minke whales, Leatherback sea turtles and Common dolphins.
We started in fog but it cleared as we approached Montauk Lighthouse. We headed east towards where whales had been spotted yesterday. On the way we found 2 groups of common dolphins, one with 10 individuals, the other with 15. We also found three leatherback turtles on the way to the whales. We found two fin whales SE of Block Island. One of the two had propeller scars and had been seen by us 10 days prior, while the other had been seen by us last year just 12 miles SW of Montauk. These whales provided us with great looks & data. We eventually left them to see a massive aggregation of about 120 common dolphins.
Totals
2 Fin Whales
2 Minke Whales
145 Common Dolphins
3 Leatherback Sea Turtles
5 Wilson Storm Petrels
3 Cory's Shearwaters
1 Manx Shearwater
Photos
Wednesday August 20, 2014: Whales and dolphins!!!
8 Fin Whales, 2 Minke Whales, 20 Common Dolphins!
Today we had reports of fin whales far to the east and others closer to the west and south. We headed south and found a group of about 10 short-beaked common dolphins just after 11am. We stayed with them for a while and left in search of larger cetaceans. It took a few more hours but we eventually found the fin whales- first one, then a pair, then more and more until we encountered 8 fin whales and 1 minke whale. There was lots of food in the waters, hence the whales were busy feeding, as were a group of about 10-12 common dolphins. A long day, but successful! We are still at 100% success!
Totals:
8 fin whales
2 minke whales
20 short-beaked common dolphins
1 unidentified sea turtle
80 Cory's shearwaters
5 Great shearwaters
1 Parasitic jaeger
2 Wilson's storm petrels.
Photos
Sunday August 24, 2014: What an amazing trip!
12 Fin Whales and 3 Minke Whales
It took a while to get to the whale grounds, but it was well worth the wait! Fin whales and minkes were everywhere. We saw individual fin whales, pairs and trios all feeding (along with minkes) on massive quantities of prey. The fin whales were very active, engaged in surface lunges, rolling over and circle feeding. At points, we were surrounded by whales. As we headed home, we encountered one more pair of fin whales. One of the pair dove and lifted its fluke- a behavior rarely seen and we were lucky enough to see and photograph it!
Totals:
12 Fin Whales
3 Minke Whales
20 Cory's shearwaters
3 Great shearwaters
5 Wilson's storm petrels
Photos
Wednesday August 27, 2014: A HUGE sucess
3 Fin Whales
We departed Montauk and travelled 20 miles offshore. Immediately about 2000 feet off the lighthouse we spotted juvenile false albacore tuna leaping on bait.
Once we got further offshore, into the remnants of the warm-core eddies of the Gulf Stream, it didn't take long to see our first blow. As we got closer we found two massive adult Finback Whales and one juvenile. We rode along side as they moved east for a good 30 minutes observing what looked like two animals that were as long as the Starship itself!! The whales were lit up in the blue water and the picture opportunity was just outstanding.
On the ride home we briefly saw a Mola mola and some more bird life
Total
3 fin whales
10 Cory's shearwaters
14 Great shearwaters
6 Wilson's Storm Petrels
1 Mola mola,
several flying fish
Monday September 1, 2014
Our 2014 Whale watching season ended today. We were unable to find any whales or dolphins today for the first time in 30 consecutive local trips since July 29, 2012. Ah well. This season, like the last, was spectacular. Our local trips brought us in contact wth fin whales, minke whales, humpback whales, short-beaked common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins (inshore and offshore types), leatherback turtles, loggerhead turtles, and Kemp's ridley turtles.
Totals
1 Great shearwater
6 Wilson's Storm Petrels
Sunday July 7, 2013
It's an ALL-STAR season opener!A spectacular line-up: whales, dolphins, turtles and pelagic birds. Our day started off with a spectacular view of nearly 1000 common dolphins. The large super- aggregation was spotted at 11am. We stayed with them for quite some time, then headed on. We next encountered loggerhead turtles (2) and eventually turned back from 24 miles out. We found 2 large fin whales feeding fast south of where the dolphins had been. We were able to get great views of the two and saw another about 1/2 mile away. What a great way to start! We will have tons of photos for you on Monday!Totals: 1000 Common Dolphins 3 Fin Whales 2 Loggerhead Turtles 500 Great Shearwaters 85 Sooty Shearwaters 30 Cory's Shearwaters 2 Pomarine Jaegers 1 Unidentified Jaeger 1 Manx Shearwater 2 Wilson's Storm Petrels Photos
|
Sunday July 14th 2013,
Amazing Trip Once Again!
Fin whales, dolphins, loggerhead turtles, pelagic birds!Our second trip was another winner. We cleared through the fog and found what we were looking for just where we thought they would be. 8-10 fin whales, including 3 mother/calf pairs were feeding and resting, feeding again, same surface and right next to us with their mouths full of food and water, and their throats expanded. We also found 60 dolphins and 2 loggerheads with the whales. Birders on board were also happy to see hundreds of Cory's and Greater Shearwaters, about 25 Sooty Shearwaters and 5 Storm Petrels. So come on out with us next week!Totals: 8-10 Fin Whales 60 Dolphins 2 Loggerhead Turtles 500 Great Shearwaters 200 Cory's Shearwaters 50 Sooty Shearwaters 12 Storm Petrels 5 Portuguese Man-of-War Photos Video |
Sunday July 21, 2013
EPIC TRIP!
It was an utterly amazing trip! The BEST IN 13 YEARS!
Fin whales, humpback whales, minke whales and common dolphins galore. We sae our first dolphins only about 7 miles out and our first whales 9 miles out. It started with common dolphins and then 2 humpbacks, then we hit the motherload. Fin whales, humpbacks, minkes and dolphins EVERYWHERE WE TURNED! Bubble feeding humpbackslunge feeding fin whales, humpbacks doing breeches, tail slaps, flipper slap. Rolling fin whales, jumping dolphins, even saw some flying fish and mahi mahi. The bird life was also spectacular and everyone was happy! Fin whale Video 1 Fin whale Video 2 Humback, Fin whale and dolphin Video |
Sunday July 28, 2013
Whales and Dolphins- AGAIN!Our amazing year continues! Whales, dolphins and pelagic birds were found again. We left in the fog and when it cleared we had perfect conditions. We found our first fin whale- east of where we had seen them previously. This one was not cooperative and kept staying down for anywhere from 3-12 minutes. Our second fin whale was much larger and also spent long times down. While looking at the second whale we found another super aggregation of common dolphins- easily 300 of them-could be seen chasing after prey and coming over to us also. We spent quite a while with the dolphins and found loads of pelagic birds. There were also 1200 Wilson's storm Petrels.Totals: 2 Fin Whales 300 Common Dolphins 1200 Wilson's Storm Petrels 30 Cory's Shearwaters 15 Great Shearwaters 3 Sooty Shearwaters 1 Sea Turtle (unidentitied) 1 Ocean Sunfish 1 Swordfish Photos Videos |
Sunday August 4, 2013
Our success continues!
WHALES, DOLPHINS, TURTLES, AND PELAGIC BIRDS2013 continues to be a stellar year with an amazing 100% success rate. Today we found a leatherback while on our way to whale grounds and then began to see whales. Today was a humpback day- seeing 3 different humpbacks spread out over several miles. They were staying down for long periods but gave us good views when back up. While viewing the whales we encountered a small group of common dolphins (about 20), On our way back we once again found a super aggregation of about 600 dolphins- all around us for 1/2 mile then another hundred and another humpback, as well as one more leatherback.Totals: 4 Humpbacks 720 Common Dolphins 2 Leatherback Sea Turtles 1 Blue Marlin 150 Cory's Shearwaters 55 Great Shearwaters 1 Sooty Shearwater 200 Wilson's Storm Petrels Photos Video |
Sunday August 11, 2013
INCREDIBLE TRIP AGAIN: Whales, Dolphins, & TurtlesThe amazing 2013 season continues. Today we were treated to many groups of dolphins and whales. We started out with several leatherbacks, then fin whales, then multiple dolphin groups. We were often surrounded by the dolphins, they were feeding, as were the fin whales. On our way in we found hundreds more dolphins and two more fin whales all feeding together with hundreds of shearwaters. Another amazing day on the Viking Starship!Totals: 6 Fin Whales 550 Dolphins 5 Leatherback Turtles 1 Loggerhead Turtle 150 Cory's Shearwaters 150 Great Shearwaters 7 Sooty Shearwaters Photos |
Sunday Aug 18, 2013
DOLPHINS and TURTLESOur success continues, still at 100% cetacean sighting success. Today's trip took us eastward and led us to a leatherback turtle before finding a pod of 20 common dolphins including some very young ones. We found another large group about 30 minutes later. This second group was an aggregation of about 100 individuals. They were very active with even more young ones.Totals: 120 Common Dolphins 1 Leatherback Turtle 75 Cory's Shearwaters 15 Great Shearwaters 2 Sooty Shearwaters 1 Immature Northern Gannet PHOTOS |
Sunday Aug 25, 2013
DOLPHINS!We took awhile to find them, but we did, about 100 short-beaked common dolphins. This large aggregation broke up into smaller groups and periodically would return. Amidst the smaller groups we found many dolphins involved in courtship and attempted mating. Single females being chases by 5-7 males at a time. We also saw quite a few young swimming with moms, and loads of juveniles.Totals: 100 Short Beaked Common Dolphins 25 Great Shearwaters 35 Cory's Shearwaters 2 Red Necked Phalaropes 5 Wilson's Storm Petrels 1 Leatherback Turtle (dead) Photos |
Sunday September 1, 2013
Humpback Whale!It wasn't until we were on our way back that we saw it, a tail throwing young humpback. Over and over again this whale would throw its tail producing massive splashes. We were able to see it well, as it splashed, surfaced, dove and tail breached. An excellent finish to our 2013 season. Our first 100% successful season in the 17 years of CRESLI-Viking Fleet whale watches. Next year let's hope we can do it again!See you next season!Totals: 1 Humpback Whale 10 Cory's Shearwaters 1 Greater Shearwater 3 Norther Gannets (mature) Photos |