We saw as many as nine whales today. We spotted some finbacks and minkes in the distance, but chose to check out the humpback that we spotted. It was our old friend Pinball. She was surfacing close to the boat so passengers could hear her blow and see her long pectoral flippers. We also spotted another humpback, Satula. As soon as we stopped to see Satula, he went down on a dive, but as we were waiting we spotted an odd looking dorsal fin in the water. It was a basking shark! 

Basking shark

It was great to see this large toothless shark hanging near the surface while we waited for Satula. Satula was averaging 3-5 min dive times and even left us a couple fishy colored gifts at the surface when he dove. Also we had reports that Nile was nearby. It was an amazing 4 species trip!

Scar on a finback whale, possibly from a ship strike

One trip found four different fin whales in the same area. They were constantly popping up on all sides of us, giving us some incredible looks. Several times one of the whales surfaced feet off of our side which shocked all the passengers on board. The water was crystal clear so we were able to follow them when they were just below the surface. One of our fin whales surfaced with extended throat pleats that were accommodating for all the fish and water it had in its mouth. Another of our fin whales had a rather large white and pink scar on its back. It looked like it might be from a recent ship strike injury. While this was a sad thing to see, it also showed passengers how resilient these giants can be.