14 September 2022

14 Sep 2022

Whale Safari Guides

Whale Safari Guides

Species seen today: minke whale, white-beaked dolphins, humpback whale

Today we went out with 2 boats in the morning and with one in the afternoon. The sea conditions were quite demanding: it was very choppy, wavy and the play of the sun glare with shades of waves made it difficult to spot the animals at sea. One of our boats saw a minke whale, but the complimentary tickets were given, since it wasn't easy to observe it. The other boat was more lucky. First we saw an adult minke whale, but not all the passangers were able to see it before it went for a dive. After awhile of waiting for it, we went to the area were other boats spotted the white-beaked dolphins. We were lucky since one dolphin jumped few times just in front of our boat! After that, they all passed under us few times, jumped again and leaped above the surface next to our boat. It was a group of 6-8 individuals of different age - few adults and 2-3 playful juvenils. We stopped again in an area where we spotted lots of birds feeding, which seemed promising to see whales as well. And, it was! After few minutes of waiting, we saw 2 minke whales in the area, just in front of us, feeding below the birds we were observing. One individual was particulary atractive to watch, since it was lunge feeding, even upside down, so we saw its throat expanding (while engulfing the prey) very clearly. 

On the afternoon tour, first we encountered a group of 10-12 white-beaked dolphins. They were interacting a little bit with us, by surfing waves toward us and then passing under us few times. We recognised few of the individuals, like an adult female Sophie, which we have in our dolphin catalogue. It seemed they had a good look at us, and wanted to go their way, so we also headed our way. After that, we saw an adult minke whale under a flock of northern gannets feeding. It was coming up for only 2 breaths, but we all manged to see it. We spotted a harbour porpoise, which passed under our boat. After that, we heard there was a humpback whale spotted so we continued to that area close by. The individual was diving for 8 minutes, was staying at the surface for 2 breaths and wasn't showing much of its body. Regardless, we managed to see it. There were also few of the boats around, so we waited for them to leave. And than - what a surprise! The humpback surfaced just behind our boat and stayed at the surface, very calmly, for 3-4 breaths! Just next to us! It dived, and while waiting for it, we spotted a minke whale surfing in a wave toward and under us. Very next second, a humpback fully breached high up in the air, about 50 meters from us! 

The whole day we were also enjoying the sightings of birds: northern gannets plunge diving for fish, sheerwaters and northern fulmars gliding above surface next to us and sounds of kittiwakes and common gillemots. 


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