Whale watching continues to be excellent off Brier Island. The whales seem to be hanging out on an area called the rip which is close to the island, making the cruise to the whales shorter than departing from any other location. The whales have been active with frequent sightings of breaching, flipper slapping, and tail lobbing. on occasion the whales have been coming close to the boat to check out the passengers. This behaviour doesn't happen every day but when it does, it certainly is memorable!

Our anniversary date was successful with lots of people, whales and beautiful weather to top it all off. Cake was served in the lobby by the grandchildren and friends of owner, Harold Graham.

A humpback whale that we have been seeing alot of is an adult female named Nine. In the 24 years that we have been conducting research, we have never seen seen this whale here until 2006. She has been a friendly whale which we are told by our colleagues that she has never behaved this way before. Most of her sightings have been with other individuals who themselves are quite curious such as Patchwork and Lacuna. Perhaps she was just following their lead!

On August 29th, we conducted a research cruise in order to survey the whales that were in the area. We recorded 11 different humpback whales ina 5 mile radius. It was a short cruise but eventful. The whales were active with breaching, we observed 7 breaching at once!

Two new mother and calf pairs have been sighted and the mothers are Clamp and Apostrophe.

Hello

Foggy chin breach

Harold eating cake

There have been many excellent cruises on the Bay of Fundy near Brier Island once again! Our whales watching excursions have been on an area called the rip. This is a ledge area that is rich in nutrients required for the feeding whales. This is due to upwelling which brings those nutrients to the surface, creating a food chain at which the whales are at the top. On August 2 we travelled to this area and found several humpback whales in the area. Two of them, were tail lobbing at the time and at one point did so in perfect unison. Talk about synchronized swimming! This occurred on the next day when we turned to leave 3 humpbacks and they breached all at once! It was a remarkable sight!

On August 4th, we once again made our way to that area but before we did we spotted a whale who was travelling very quickly in a southerly direction. As the whale fluked up, we identified it as Littlespot, the 1979 offspring of Istar. We followed him to his destination, the McDormand Patch, where several other humpbacks were found. We identified two other whales that we haven't seen yet this year. They were Mogul and New Moon. Whales are known to travel throughout their feeding areas and we found that out the next day. We sailed to the McDormand Patch, thinking that the whales were still there but they had moved on. We then travelled to the rip, a sure thing and found three humpbacks.

On August 8th, we witnessed 4 humpback whales working together in coordinated lunge feeding. THey would blow bubbles to school the herring and then lunge through the bubbles together.

On August 12th, we once again returned to the rip and could see whale spouts in the distance. The whales were pleentiful and we documwented 25 humpback whales in one 4 hour cruise, one of whom was Patchwork who entertained our whale watchers by approaching very closely to the boat, which is what
he is well known for.

Humpbacks identified since the last report are: Pisces, Jai Alai, New Moon, Mogul, Littlespot, Cacophony, Hopper, Obsidian, Whistler, Handstand, Blanco, Notchy, Willow, Coronach, Lemon Drop and Shuttle.

Cirrus and Haze

Cetacean Quest and whales

Whale watching continues to be successful with Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises. Even though the weather hasn't always been the best, it doesn't deter sightings on any of the cruises. The whales are hanging out on an area called the rip, not far from Brier Island. The rip is a ledge area where tidal waters create upwellings, bringing food to the surface, making these area rich in nutrients for the whales and seabirds. These areas are ideal spots to start looking for the whales and in the case of foggy conditions, where we start listening for them. On any given cruise in the last week we could see up to 20 whales, including humpback, fin and minke whales!

On July 19, 2006, we conducted a research cruise in which we surveyed several areas which are known for whales such as the prong, Northeast Bank and the rip. We sailed 100 miles that day and documented over 50 humpbacks, 16 fin whales, and numerous minkes. We were able to document several new humpbacks that day such as: Palmer-Crary, Half Moon, #0875, Patchwork, Hawksbill, Lagoon, Lacuna, Squiggle, Cloud, Nine, Scoop, Sunburst, Patches, Raptor, Six, Pinball, Peedee, Alpine, Vector, Furrows, Salvo and more.

Our latest cruise which was on July 31, 2006 was successful with 5 humpback whales sighted on the 530 pm sunset cruise. Everyone was well satisfied as we returned to port watching the sun set behind us. A beautiful end to a beautiful day!

Humpback in seaweed


Fin whale

Palmer-Crary

Whale watching has never better! The humpbacks have arrived to feed on the herring and krill in the nutrient rich waters surrounding Brier Island. The tides of the Bay create upwellings bringing those nutrients to the surface, creating a food chain of which the large whales are at the top. The shallow areas or ledges near brier Island are ideal for this ecosystem and most whales can be found at those areas. Despite the weather that we have been having the last few days, the sightings have been excellent on every cruise.

On Monday July 10, we conducted a research cruise. Our intention was to survey areas in the lower Bay of Fundy where whales tend to feed. This included the Grand Manan Banks, The Prong (Near Grand Manan) and of course the waters in our area. We didn't get much further than our area when we discovered a number of whales near Brier Island. We wanted to document as many of the individuals as we could and it took us most of the day to do so, preventing us from going any further. The highlight of the day was when Clipper breached close to the boat, allowing for a great view of her ventral pleats!

Whales that we sighted that day were: Thistle, Operands, Sigma, Bungee, Sunburst, Python, Capella, Stellar, Clipper, Vector, Chorni, Mirage, Colorado, Umbra, Puppet, and Parrot and calf.

On July 12, a very foggy day, we watched Bungee who was who flipper slapped next to the boat showing us her 15 foot long pectoral flippers. Although it was foggy, we sighted 4 more humpback whales. They were Umbra, Puppet, Thistle and an unknown whale. Whales can be located in the fog by shutting down the engine ad listening for their powerful exhalation. It can be heard as far as a mile away on a calm day. The most interesting encounter was watching Stellar interact with an inflatable whale watching boat. He was upside down directly underneath with a flipper raised on each side of the boat. He was very gentle and posed no threat whatsoever!

Breach


Flipper Slap

Humpback Whale

Today we had the pleasure of sighting the largest mamal on earth, the Blue Whale! This species is not common to the Bay of Fundy so its presence was a surprise. Also sighted today were fin whales and the rarest large whale in the world the North Atlantic Right Whale.

Blue Whale


Blue Whale

Whale watching on the Bay of Fundy commenced on on May 21, 2006 and with no disappointments. We were pleased to sight the first humpback whale of the season. It seemed a little early to be seeing this species as they travel to the Caribbean for breeding and calving in the winter and don't usually start to arrive in the Bay until mid June. This was a smaller whale and probably didn't go as far south as the adults would. On the following day, 2 humpbacks were actually sighted from the shores of Brier Island. Trips were cancelled that day due to high winds so we weren't able to identify the whales.

Cruises were sporadic the first part of June due to weather. On June 12th, we sighted our first adult Humpback whales, counting 9 in total. One of the humpbacks we quickly identified ad Foggy, an adult female we have sighted in the Bay since she was brought here by her mother, Bermuda, in 1987. Foggy herself has had 2 calves, one in 2000 and the other in 2003. We continued to see humpbacks on a daily basis, adding new ones every day. Humpback whales can be idenitified by a black and white pattern on the underside of their tail, no two are the same.

On June 16 we were delighted to see 5 different species of ballen whales on our whale watch cruise. There were 6 humpbacks, 3 Northern right whales, 2 finbacks and 2 minke whales. Of the humpbacks, Quixote and her 6 month old calf were the most fun. Calves, like puppies and kittens can be interesting to watch as they are trying out some new manouvres they learn from the adults. THis calf for instance was breaching, giving our passengers a good look at its entire body as it leaped out of the water in a spinning breach next to the boat. It then tail lobbed and tail breached before following its mother to the depths below.

Humpback whales that we have identified to date are: Grand Manan, Evolution, Foggy, Colorado, Touchdown, Shotput, Corona, Eclipse, Quixote and calf, Palindrome and Horizon.

Birds continue to be numerous. We have been seeing Atlantic Puffins, Wilson's Storm Petrels, Greater, Sooty and a few Manx Shearwaters, Northern Gannets and Common Murres on occasion.

Quixote's calf breach


Fin Whale

The fall weather is here but we are still having excellent cruises on the Bay of Fundy.  Since the last update there has been quite a bit of activity including a disentanglement of a humpback whale. That incident occurred on August 30.  The whale was reported by the ferry running between Long Island and Brier Island to Harold Graham who was out on a short survey looking for humpback whales on the Mega Nova.  The whale had a line wrapped tightly around it in two places, ahead of the dorsal fin and behind  the dorsal fin.  Once the whale was located, the trailing line was grappled and tied to the boat to slow the whale down.  The Coast Guard then approached the whale on their zodiac with the disentanglement equipment.  The line was so tight that it was difficult to find a place to cut the rope.  In the meantime, the rope broke close to the whale, weakening the tension around the whale.  The coast guard observed the one of the wraps had come clear of the whale so that only one remained. Our only hope is that the remainder had been shed.
To date we have documented 122 individual whales.  The latest to be added to the list are:Southpaw, Taper, Pepper, Cat's Paw, 03 calf Foggy, Pendiente, Spoon, Sedge, Sauron, Cloud, Slumber, Diablo, Ellipsis, Whistler, and Grand Manan.

We were very surprised to see Pepper and Cat's Paw as they are whales that are usually seen on Stellwagen Bank.  Why they ventured into the Bay of Fundy, we're not sure!

On October 1 we sighted 7 right whales engaged in a surface active group.  This is a courtship group in which the female calls for the males who approach her in hopes of winning her affection.  Usually in the group,there is the one female and the remainder are males. The North Atlantic right whale is the rarest large whale on earth. There are only about 300 of them left.  So to see these whales is a treat, however, where we sighted these whales they were in the middle of the ingoing shipping lane to St. John, New Brunswick.
Our cruises will be running until October 16 and hopefully we will be conducting some research cruises after that time.  We will keep you posted!

Entangled Whale


North Atlantic Right Whale

Whale watching in the Bay of fundy continues to be exceptional!   We have been sighting a fair number of humpback whales in the area and different individuals are appearing every day !  Our calf counts are now at 14, the latest being the calf of Sabot.  The calves are born in the Caribbean and are about 8 months of age when we see them now. They will stay with their mothers for up to a year.  We have had two tragedies in the Bay however.  Just recently Fan and Rooftop were sighted without their calves.  At the time when Fan was sighted, there was a  dead calf seen floating on the "Rip".  We're not sure yet just whose calf it was, we are only speculating that it may have been hers.  Fluke shots were obtained of the dead calf, so hope fully we will be able to match them that way.  The most reliable method of course would be to acquire a DNA sample and determine the maternal line.

We did receive some good news though.  Last October, Peedee returned to the Bay with some nasty looking entanglement marks and without her calf.  We assumed that th calf had become entangled as well and died. Jooke Robbins, of Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies confirmed that the calf has been resighted off the coast of Maine.  It is assumed that when Peedee became entangled that the calf was then was on its own.

We conducted a research cruise on August 26 and were very pleased with the results.  We documented 40 individual Humpback whales, 20+ Sei whales and 3 Right whales.  It was interesting to see the Sei whales and the Right whales skim feeding in the same area.  Both of these species feed on copepods, a very small plankton.

New individuals in the Bay of Fundy are: Slingshot, Six, Peedee, Champagne and calf, Ilta, Patchwork, Gondolier, Wigwam, Lacey, Sabot and calf, Quote, Tigris, Horizon, Sunburst, Kilter, Baton, Patches, Pawprint, Photon, Vector, 0985, and Quixote.

Humpback


Patchwork and Cetacean Quest


Whales at Sunset

Humpback Whales continue to be sighted close to Brier Island with lots of activity included!  The favourites continue to be Clipper and her calf who mare often seen breaching, flipper slapping, or being curious about the people who are watching them.  Clipper herself is a large humpback whale and it's awesome to see her enormous mass in a full breach!

To date, we have documented 12 mother and calf pairs in the Bay of Fundy, not quite reaching last year's record of 17  but we still have 2 and half months to go!

On August 8 we sighted a single North Atlantic Right Whale travelling along the Long Island Shore.
On August 9, we watched "Dice", a humpback whale interact with an Ocean Sunfish.  Perhaps interact is not the proper term, more like harass!  Dice would flipper slap, roll and tail breach on  top of the sunfish.  It was very amusing for us, probably not so much for the sunfish!

New humpback whales sighted:  Filigree and calf, Meteor, Arch, Teather and calf, Bungee and calf, Arachnid and calf, Chablis, Churchill, Flamingo, Lace, Lacuna, Fairway, Anvil, Gazelle, Sword, Tornado, Agassiz, Mogul, I Beam, Capella and calf, Scoop (Not seen here since 1990), Pisces, Dice, and Sockeye.

Mega Nova and Humpback


Clipper

What a great week with lots of whales and wonderful weather! Most of the sightings this week have been of humpback whales, minke whales and harbor porpoises. We have yet to see any dolphins in the area. Usually by this time they have already made their appearance in the Bay of Fundy. 

The highlight of the past few days have been Clipper and her calf. The calf has been very inquisitive and playful and will often show off for us. His mom, Clipper is not far behind! On one occasion while he investigated the boat, Clipper started breaching. Seeing that made us appreciate her size! There have been so far, seven mother and calf pairs that have been documented in the Bay of Fundy, the latest was Lava who was sighted on July 24.

To date we have sighted the following humpback whales:. 

Sightings continue in the Bay of Fundy despite the fog that has been intermittently hanging over the Bay of Fundy. This type of weather can only hinder us if wind is included with the fog. Most of the cruises have been going to a location in the Bay about 6 miles or so west of Brier Island,called the "Rip". This area is a shallower area in which the tide meets as it rushes into the Bay and creates upwellings. These upwellings promote growth of food species for the whales and are great places to look for them. It has been at the rip where we have been sighting most of the whales in the past two weeks. Three humpbacks that have been regularly sighted there have been Foggy, Whisk and # 8171. 

On July 7 we had quite a surprise as we were heading in from a whale watching cruise. Near Brier Island we spotted a Right whale mother and calf pair! Right whale are the rarest large whales in the world. Their common names was derived from being the "right" whale to hunt. They were very slow, hence making them easy to catch, they floated when they were killed and yielded large amount of oil. It was noted in a whaling log that the blubber from one right whale was boiled down into 75 barrels of oil! This species are protected but still their numbers are dangerously low. So it is very exciting to see any growth to the species that is on the edge of extinction. During this past winter there were 28 calves born to the population.

The cruise of the week was on July 8 when two humpback whales approached our whale watching vessel. Sometimes these whales will get just as curious of humans as we are of them. 

Humpbacks that have been sighted: Touchdown and calf, Raindrop and calf, Python, Jawa, Cornucopia, Gremlin, Obsidian, Foggy and # 8171

Birds sighted: Greater shearwaters, Sooty Shearwaters, Puffins, Murres, Wilson's Storm Petrels, Northern Fulmars, Northern Gannets, Red and Red Necked Phalaropes.

Spyhop

Mother and Calf

Whale and Boat

Hello there!

The whales are here! Each year we wait in anticipation for the first humpback whale to arrive and certainly the 2005 season has been no different! Our season commenced on May 21st with sightings of minke whales and harbor porpoises. Minke whales are usually the first species to arrive back in the Bay of Fundy but their presence here is short term. As the summer goes on these whales are no longer present.......or it may be we are not noticing them as much! The second largest whale in the world, the fin whale is usually the next species to arrive and such was the case this year with the first sighting being on June 15. Fin whales can be up to 80 feet in length and when seen next to the boat, they are truly an impressive sight!

By this time we were getting anxious to see humpback whales and wondered where they might be hanging out so acting upon a report we received from Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station, we headed off on our first research cruise for 2005 on June 20th. We covered a distance of about 100 miles and were able to locate some humpback whales at a location called "Finigan's" and North East Bank. The humpbacks are typically at this location at the beginning of the season and gradually find their way to Brier Island! And sure enough later that day, we sighted 2 humpback whales near Brier Island that had been sighted 5 hours earlier 16 miles away! Each humpback whale has a name and/or number and this is very useful in tracking their movements within the Gulf of Maine. We can identify these whales by the black and white pattern on the underside of their tails such as Tusk and Raccoon as the photos demonstrate. 

To date we have sighted the following humpback whales: Notchy, Mr. Burns, Raccoon, Haze, Tusk, Chorni, Paravane, Whisk, Cherry, Magpie, Foggy, #8171, Jawa, Shark, Cirrus, Rooftop and her new calf!.

Racoon

Tusk