Today on the Asteria we had another great day of whale watching!

Hancock's fluke

On our 10am trip we headed to the NW corner and found two scattered groups of two humpbacks, traveling slowly through the area. We first came upon females Hancock and Shark, who were moving slowly and logging. At first the pair wasn’t fluking, but on our last looks both of them showed us their tail patterns.

Shark's fluke

We then moved onto Victim and her calf, passing a minke whale on the way. This mom and calf were also traveling slow and taking shallow dives. Near the end of our morning trip, the calf began exhibiting some rear behavior/tail rises, and then appeared to be nursing as it swam underneath Victim and bobbed on either side of her.

Cajun, Hancock and Shark resting beside the boat

On our 1:30 trip we headed back to the same area, and this time found a group that joined up of well-known female:s Pepper, Cajun, Hancock, and Shark. Pepper joined this slow-traveling group last – and of the four whales, she didn’t appear to be logging.

Cajun's spout

As Pepper joined the group, she began trumpeting and the whales began to wake up, except for Cajun who lingered in the back of the group and logged at the surface. She also rolled a bit too. Overall we got spectacular looks at this group as they approached our boat closely (see photo of Cajun’s spout) – making it an outstanding afternoon on the water!

Cajun rolling

We also spotted a few harbor seals resting at the surface.
— Laura Howes

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.