Photos from July 26

Flipper Slapping
An adult male named Patches

Tail Lobbing

Flash's 2010 calf

What a Magnificent Day!

And magnificent it was, especially on the 1:30 pm cruise when a Magnificent Frigatebird was

sighted in the Bay of Fundy. These birds are usually found in tropical oceans, such as off the coast of Florida and south. We're not sure how it ended up in the Bay of Fundy and hope that it makes its way back to its home waters.

Also sighted on our anniversary were several humpback whales who were identified as Flash and her calf, Puppet and Baton. There were also minke whales as well as fin whales. awesome day on the Bay!

Amazing, simply amazing

Photos from our latest cruises! Awesome days on the Bay of Fundy with Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises!

Whales in the Fog!

Greetings from the Bay of Fundy! Our cruises continue to be exceptional despite the fog that has been lingering. Many whales seem to be in the area with sightings of different individuals every day! Since the last post, we have had the addition of two more calves in the Bay. The mothers were identified as Mocha and Cirrus, who hasn't had a calf since 2004! The calving interval for humpback whales is usually every two to three years.

Flame

We have been seeing lots of activity bythe whales, including Flame, who amused us by playing in a rockweed streak. Flame is an adult male that we have been seeing here since 1986

Another calf for Flash

Flash, one of our adopt-a-whales arrived in the Bay of Fundy with her 7th calf! Flash has been coming here since 1987 and is a favourite with our researchers. She was always one to appoach our whale watch boat and spy hop (Rise vertically out of the water to have a look)

Our Zodiac was the first to find a couple of humpbacks and when we arrived, Flash and her calf soon appeared in the area! While Flash was busy feeding, the calf demonstrated his ability to tail breach and it looked like it was having fun!

We documented our 6th mother and calf pair in the Bay and we were able to identify the mother as Mocha! So exciting to see the calves!

A Whole Food Chain in Action!

Lunge Feeding humpback

Shrimp-like crustacean called krill

Side lunging humpback whales


Maelstrom playing with a piece of kelp

What an excellent day! We witnessed the marine food chain in action. Humpback whales were feeding on the smallest, krill! The humpback whales would emerge in unison with their mouths agape, baleen fully visible. Humpback whales are medium size baleen whales, the baleen used to filter the krill from the water. Humpback whales must eat about a ton and a half of food every day in order to build up their blubber layer in order to survive during the winter months, when they don't eat at all. To see this in action is truly amazing!

Surface feeding on the Bay!

Quote's 2010 calf

Surface feeding humpback whales

Quote and Rooftop

Surface feeding! You can see the baleen and the whale's palette. The ventral pleats are expanded to accomodate the mass amount of water that will be expelled as they filter the krill from the seawater.

What a great day on the Bay of Fundy today! we witnessed the very reason why these whales come into our Bay. and that is to feed on the abundance of herring and krill that can be found in these nutrient rich waters. There were many whales in the area, humpbacks, fin whales and minke whales. We watched a mother and calf humpback whale pair and their escort who was identified as Rooftop. The mother was identified as Quote who's last calf was in 2008. Mallard, an adult male was also in the vicinity.

The activity ws non stop as we watched the constant appearance of bubble clouds, a method humpbacks use to corral their prey. It was nice to have a hint as to where these whales were going to surface with their mouths agape to capture a nice big mouthful of krill.

There were lots of birds in the area too. We sighted Razorbills, Puffins, Greater Shearwaters, Sooty Shearwaters, Northern Gannets, and Wilson's Storm Petrels!