October Winds

Greetings everyone! Our season has ended for 2008 and it was a great year overall. Never before have we recorded as many calves in the Bay of Fundy as we did for this year. At season end we had 24 new calves in the Bay but sadly, we lost 2 of those. They were the calves of Rooftop and Spoon.

The photos above show one of the reasons why we end our season in October. These photos were taken at Pond Cove on Brier Island. The first photo show what happened when such high seas meet. Amazing!

An Orca in the Bay of Fundy!

Oh did I forget to mention that on September 20, 2008 we sighted an Orca in the Bay of Fundy? It was travelling with a small group of Atlantic White Sided Dolphins!

Fabulous Whale Watching!

Whale watching continues to be fabulous with Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises. Our calf count is currently at 23! This is a record number for the Bay of Fundy as the average sightings of mother and calves is usually no more than 5 per season. Although the last few years there has been an increase. The latest mother to arrive in the Bay of Fundy with her calf has been Kalimba. She has been sporatically sighted in the Bay of Fundy since 1991 and this appears to be her first known calf .

Kalimba

On a sad note we lost one of our calves. A small humpback whale washed up in Delap's Cove, Nova Scotia. Jack Tattrie sent some photos to me of the identifying pattern on the underside of the flukes and it was matched to Spoon's 2008 calf. We are not sure what happened but it is under investigation.

Spoon's 2008 calf on September 5, 2008

Identifying marks on the right fluke.

On a much happier note, there are plenty of whales around Brier Island to see. On September 28th, we recorded 21 individual humpback whales and 1 right whale. Keep in mind that every trip is different and we never know what we're going to see.

Breaching Right Whale

The latest news from Brier Island

Good day everyone. So sorry for the long delay in the updates! The Bay of Fundy still continues to be a hot spot for whales. The September weather is very good for whale watching with bright sunny skies, excellent for scanning the water for whale spouts! The list of new calves continues to grow with the latest mother who has arrived in the Bay being Three Dots. This calf is the second for her that we know of, the first being in 2004. Our calf count is now at an amazing 21 which far exceeds any other year!

We have had new whales arriving in the Bay daily. One is an individual that has yet to be identified. We were able to get some excellent photos of the whale as it stayed with the boat for about an hour! It semed to like the water streaming from the wet exhaust of the generator! It turned on its side to have a look!

Other whales that have been sighted lately are: Champagne, Cornucopia, Clipper, Foggy, Colorado, Flame, Hopper, and Haze and her calf.

An overdue update!

Greetings from the Bay of Fundy! Whale watching continues to be active and interesting with many sighings of humpbacks, a few fin whales and minke whales. We were very excited to add another mother to our ever growing list. The latest mother and calf were to arrive were Spoon and NAHWC#8324. Spoon is actually the 19th mother that we have documented. If we are to sight one more, we will have exceeded last year's record which is quite remarkable!

The humpback whales that we see here are part of the Gulf of Maine population of humpback whales in the North Atlantic. There are reports off 77 calves that have been documented in this population which is an excellent number!

New whales are being sighted daily such as Filament, Filigree, Collision, Jurassic, Churchill (at left) and Sigma. To date, we have sighted 124 individual humpback whales.

Sightings are Great!

Whales a plenty! We are just amazed at the number of whales that continue to frequent the Nova Scotia side of the Bay of Fundy and we seem to be seeing different individual humpack whales everyday. We have now documented 17 new calves to the Bay of Fundy. Although not quite to last year's record of 19, we still have a bit of time to go and anxiously await to see if there are more to come. THe Gulf of Maine's entire population, of which our whales are included, is around 800 humpbacks. We have had a report that the calf count is now at 77, an all time high! THe latest mothers to arrive to the Bay of Fundy are Vibes and NAHWC#0034.

Our sunset cruises have been awesome with lots of activity! Sockeye continues to amuse us and we have had a new friendly whale join the ranks. His name is Scream and the last time we saw him was in 2006. We are so glad that he retuned to the Bay of Fundy!

There has been an increase in sightings of right whales the last few days. This species is usually found in the Grand Manan Basin which is about 20 miles north from Brier Island so they are not usually seen on our cruises which are only about 5 miles from the island.

We have identified some new humpback whales in our area. They are: Vee, Ase, Churchill, Scream, Wigwam, Arch, Peajack, Cone, and Slingshot.

Humpback Whales in Grand Passage!

What a way to celebrate our anniversary! Much to everyone's surprise and delight, four humpback whales came through Grand Passage from St. Mary's Bay and continued through the passage into the Bay of Fundy. Whales will travel through occasionally but usually the smaller minke whales. THe shoreline was lined with spectators and the ferry slowed so that their passengers could have a look. We were able to obtain excellent photographs and we were able to identify them as Flash, Frost, Cone, and Tusk!