Misty Monday

We had a brave bunch of hardy souls that went out in the rain today to go whale spotting. And the report back was they saw Sei whales , dolphins and a really close look at a Minke whale. So close that you could see the white "mittens". The crew like to call the Minkes whales, stinky minkes because it is hard to get a close look at them because they can be very boat shy. A Minke whale is about 35 feet long and likes to eat small fish like herring, capelin and krill.

When are you going to come out and look for the great white whale with us?

Stop by and see us the next time you are in Kennebunk, Maine.

Who will stop the rain?

We traveled to Jefferies ledge on Friday and Saturday with mixed results since it was a little foggy out there. Sunday got rained out even though the whales are already wet.

On Friday we saw a couple of deep diving Finbacks that were doing long dives. A Finback dive can be 5 to 20 minutes and they are fast swimmers and can resurface a few miles away from where they last dove. They are not the breath holding champs that reward goes to the Sperm whale. More about that in a later blog.

But we did spot a ocean sunfish for the first time this season. An ocean sun fish can grow up to 13 feet across and weight up to 4000 pounds. It feeds mostly on jellyfish and can lay more than 300 million eggs at a time.

The Saturday trip brought gray seals, north atlantic white side dolphins and a puffin. We are seeing more puffins in the area as each year progresses. But the whales were hiding in the fog for the day. To let everyone know, if "Nick's Chance" doesn't spot whales that day everyone on board gets a non-sighting pass to come back anytime for another try. There is no expiration date on the pass. Since whales are a wild creature we can't call ahead and ask them where they are, but we do have a lot of fishing friends that tell us what they have in there area to help us narrow down the field. We don't get skunked very often but it does happen from time to time. We get clients back the next week, the next month or a couple years later. Most of the returning passengers remember us! The crew doesn't change very often for year to year, since we always have a good time together.

The picture is two north atlantic white side dolphins playing in the boat wake! They are fun to watch.

So join us for a trip this summer.

The website is wwww.firstchancewhalewatch.com. Call us at 207.967.5507

Finally the sun is out...

Well it has been over a week of rain! Hopefully is seas will calm down and we will be able to get back out on the ocean again. Cross your fingers and hope for good weather ahead. We have been out passing out whale watch brochures in York County during all this rain. I think we have hit most of the lodgings and campgrounds but if you can think of one that hasn't been covered let us know.

This image was taken last year as we returned from a trip, in which we passed thru a small rain shower. You can see the wonderful rainbow as the sun was setting in the west.

Ramping up operations

The summer solistic is this weekend and the crew is ramping up operations at First Chance Whale Watch. We will be heading out on the water, if mother nature will cooperate with us, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 10am. Also the regular weekend schedule is still in effect. Saturdays at 10am and Sunday at noon. So join the whale paparazzi and see if you can see your favorite humpback. And for the kids the scenic lobster tour is a good way to get out on the ocean and let your children see how lobstering is done in Maine with Captain John. It is fun to watch the kids hold a live lobster, a simple joy in life for parents and crew.

A Humpback called Pinball

Hey we had a great day out on the water on Saturday! It was so beautiful out and glass-like surface with a small gentle roll. We found whales on the northern end and back side of Jeffreys. I wasn't able to get a lot of photos as the whales we traveling in search for food. We came across a Minke whale only 6 miles from shore, but it was heading in the wrong direction for us to really take a look at. A passenger made the sighting out on the northern end of Jeffreys and it turned out to be the Humpback whale named Pinball. She is a well-known resident whale first sighted in 1992 and she has been seen for at least 10 years since then. She was traveling in search for feed, as there wasn't a lot on the fish finder, but we did get a few close encounters. There were a lot of other boats around the horizon, tuna boats, and fishing boats. We decided to head towards the south were more blows were sighted. We came across 3 other Humpbacks. Again these whales were hard to get a good look at, as they took were in search for food. I was able to get a fluke photograph of one of the Humpbacks, however it is from a long distance and the quality is not so great. I am not sure about the name of this Humpback right away but am going to try to figure it out. There was also a Finback in the area and another Humpback whale. But we were out of time and had to head back in. It was a great day to be out on the water and were lucky to see such a great number of whales, seabirds, and Sargasso seaweed!

We had a woman on the boat and it was her 4th year out on our boat! We take pride in finding out that some of our passengers come back year after year to experience another great whale watch on our boat. Every trip and every day is different and it is great to hear that passengers enjoy our boat and crew enough to come back year after year. We are hoping to schedule a few more trips this week so feel free to call to find out our schedule!

Minkes, humpbacks, finbacks & sharks..... oh my!

This was one of the best weekends to be out on the boat yet this season! It was sunny, fairly warm out in the sun, and the sea conditions were almost perfect minus a small SE swell. We headed out of the Kennebunk River around noon towards Jeffreys Ledge where there were previous sightings of whales earlier in the week. Jeffreys Ledge is an area where animals such as Humpbacks, Finwhales, Minke, and Sei Whales, frequent during the months of May through October to feed on herring, krill, and sand lance. On our way, some passengers spotted a Minke Whale and 2 Basking Sharks! Basking sharks get their name from their most common behavior, of feeding at the surface where it apprears to be "basking". The shark does not have teeth as it is what we call a "Vegetarian Shark." It feeds by swimming with its large jaw open while plankton gets filtered through its gills containing gill rakers that "rake" the plankton from the salt water. The shark that we saw was rather large and we got a good look at it as it swam underneath the boat. A little while later, we came up apon 2 sleeping Humpback whales and quite a few Minke Whales swimming/feeding the same general area. After a few minutes of watching these two Humpbacks, they decided to wake up and dive down below the surface, feeding on the same things that the Minke Whales were probably feeding on. When Humpbacks raise their flukes in order to dive below the surface, their provide not only a beautiful picture that everyone wants, but it also allows us to be able to photograph the markings on the underside of the tail to help identify each whale. Each Humpback whale has a specific pigmentation pattern on the underside of the fluke, similar to our own finger print. A non-profit organization called Allied Whale started researching the natural markings on Humpbacks in the 1970's as a way to destinguish between different individuals, monitor migration, health, and particular behaviors of each whale. Over the years, over 6,000 individual Humpback Whales have been identified and some have even been given a name. After watching the whales for a while, we were soon able to identify the Humpbacks based on their black and white pigmentation on their fluke or tail. We were watching a Humpback named Spoon and Sabot! Because of the research that Allied Whale conducts, information is gathered on the individual whales over time. Sabot was first seen in 1990. She is know to be a female as she has been seen with a calf. Since 1970, she has been sighted at least 6 times in the Gulf of Maine. Spoon if known to be a female as she was spotted with a calf last year. However, due to unforseen events, she was later sighted without her calf that same summer. While we were watching these whales, the captain also spotted numerous other whales in the distance. We left our "sleeping" whales to catch up on their beauty sleep and headed about a mile south to find the other whales. We came across another Humpback. With the help of a passenger we were able to identify the whale named Owl. This whale is well known in this area. She was born in 1986 and has been sighted at least 15 years. She is a know female and has a calf named Falco. Also in the area feeding was a Finback Whale, but as these whales travel very fast, we did not get a great look at it. The overall trip was a great sucess! Not only did we see a variety of species but we were also able to learn about the particular Humpbacks that were sighted! Look for more information on photo-identification and more sightings to come!

Mother Nature Rules

Well, this weekend reminded us that Mother Nature always has the upper hand. Nick' Chance didn't go out on Saturday due to weather conditions but we did go out on Sunday at 12:30pm. We had to wait for a half hour because it was dead low tide at Noon and we had to wait a bit to get more water under the boat so we could turn around in the river. Once in the Atlantic the seas were a bit high so the swells were breaking over the bow. At 15 miles out we ran into a pod of FinBack Whales diving for some food at about 300 feet. A basking shark was spotted but it didn't stay on the surface for very long.

The Scenic Lobster Tour was able to make it out both on Saturday and Sunday since it doesn't travel that far off shore. On Sunday we had a tour group from Pennsylvania which was made up of high school seniors on a final class trip/holiday before going onto college later this fall. They had a good time and the crew enjoyed their upbeat spirit. One remarked to the crew that it must be nice to have a job that didn't require you to wear shoes. Since one of the mates prefers the traction of bare feet on the deck while at sea.