Early on September 22 as we were surveying the Bay of Fundy, we spotted the flukes of a large, diving whale and soon realized there was more than one whale in the area. We found two humpbacks and photographed them. As we were working them, we spotted a right whale close by, identified as Glacier (Catalog #1402).

Glacier's back scar is visible where the water starts to wash over his back. Photo: Samantha Emmert

Glacier is a 31-year old male last sighted in 2013 off the Northern Florida coast. He is named for a large white scar on his back that looks like melting glacier. When we first found him, he was fluking in a unique way that resembled tail slashing, and he also lobtailed briefly. We followed Glacier and soon found a second right whale, Comet (#1514). The two surfaced near each other at one point, but did not seem to be associated.

Comet took a minute to rest at the surface. Photo: Johanna Anderson

Comet is at least 30 years old and was last seen in 2014. He also has a distinctive scar on his back, from which he derives his name. By the end of the day these were the only right whales we found, but we did see a total of 202 harbor porpoise, as well as a few other humpback and minke whales.

The wind unexpectedly died down on the morning of September 25, so we decided to head out for our last afternoon on the Bay of Fundy. A team of six went out on the Nereid to survey North and East, and a team of two joined Chris on his boat, Jupiter, to survey South and West.

On the Nereid, we saw very few animals during our first few hours on the water. Then, Kelsey saw some whitewater in a seaweed patch, which typically indicates of the presence of an animal. We slowed down to identify the creature, and it turned out to be a right whale! It was behaving strangely, waving the tip of its fluke back and forth just above the water, then sinking for long periods of time without fluking.

We have a potential ID for this younger whale, but as of yet, the ID is not confirmed. Photo: Kelsey Howe

We had a difficult time getting ID-able photographs during this encounter and ended up staying with the whale for about an hour, without much success. We also saw a second right whale fluke a bit further away and photographed it from a distance, but were unable to relocate it. Even though these two sightings were frustrating and hard to work, we were excited that there were whales in the Bay! After leaving the whales, we continued our survey but did not see much more than harbor porpoise, puffins, and a basking shark breaching in the distance.

The Jupiter surveyed some new areas for the season and made a pit stop to check out the historic lighthouse on Gannet Rock (built in 1831!). Though they didn't have any luck in finding right whales, they did get some close looks at a pair of humpbacks, one of which lobtailed several times!

This humpback picked the perfect setting to lobtail. Photo: Marianna Hagbloom

While crossing the Grand Manan Channel, we all were treated to arguably the most spectacular sunset of the season.

And it only got better.... Photo: Brigid McKenna

The wind looks like it will be blowing hard for the rest of the week, so sadly, the 25th really was our last day out on the water. The Nereid will be hauled out of the water and the field station will be packed up this week. The whales were few and far between this season, but we did our best to find the ones that did venture into the Bay of Fundy.

-Sam

The Nereid crew had been waiting patiently for another good weather window to survey the Bay of Fundy, and luckily September 26 held light winds and no fog for us. As we made our way into the Bay, we occasionally stopped and turned off the boat for a listening station, which allows us to hear distant whale blows. Though we heard and saw humpbacks on the horizon, we did not hear or see any right whales. During one listening station, Monica noticed some dolphins splashing around, and with her binoculars she realized that there were dolphins as far as the binoculars could see!



To determine species and estimate the group size (and to have some fun!), we decided to get a closer look. These were Atlantic white-sided dolphins, and we estimated this pod was composed of 400 individuals!



We were amused by their huge leaps out of the water and by the flurry of activity that would occur when chasing fish. We also caught glimpses of several mothers with calves, which evoked some "awww!"s from our otherwise very professional observers.

Not too long after continuing on our trackline, the observers on the bow called back that they were seeing something that looked like a lobe of a right whale fluke sticking out of the water. As soon as we got a better look through our binoculars, we realized we were looking at an orca! For many of us, this was the first time we'd ever seen an orca in the Bay of Fundy, and for some of us, this was our first orca sighting ever, so you can imagine the excitement on the Nereid!



We stayed with the orca for a few dive cycles, and got close enough to get some great photographs of his remarkably tall dorsal fin. We used the images to compare this orca with the orca that was seen by our team in the Bay of Fundy in 2012- and it turns out that this is the same whale, fondly known to our team as "Old Thom." Although this killer whale had been seen in 2012, sightings of this species in the Bay of Fundy are very rare- CBC News even chose to write an article about it!



Rounding out our survey day was a sighting of a trio of humpback whales. One of the humpbacks was "Foggy," who was disentangled from fishing gear by the Campobello Whale Rescue Team last September. It was wonderful to see this whale survived the incident and had returned to the Bay of Fundy.

On August 15, a team including Moe, Philip, Kelsey, Marianna and Kari left Campobello Island for an offshore trip aboard the Shelagh, captained by Joe. Destined for Roseway Basin and slated to last two weeks, the Shelagh was packed to the brim with food, supplies and equipment. After a few days of loading and orienting ourselves to the boat, we left around noon on Friday and began surveying after leaving the harbor. Our sightings in the Grand Manan Channel were few and far between, but there was plenty of fishing gear to be counted. After we ate our first dinner at sea, we continued transiting overnight so that we would reach Roseway Basin by the morning.

Dan and Bill looking for whales in glassy sea. Photo: Marilyn Marx

Sunday was a stunningly beautiful day out in the Bay of Fundy--a glass calm sea state and excellent visibility. With the three vessels mentioned in our last blog: Nereid, Callisto and Selkie we did an extensive survey. We could see for miles and found humpbacks, fin whales, molas, dolphins and basking sharks, but no right whales were sighted.

Team member Orla O'Brien has identified this humpback as Photon, an adult female. Photo Amy Knowlton

A good look at an approaching Mola mola. Photo: Marilyn Marx

An Atlantic white-sided dolphin surfing in the Nereid''s wake. Photo: Marilyn Marx

Photo: Brian Skerry

Marilyn