Our third right whale survey of the season presented a cloudy but calm day. We headed up the west side of the Ledge, and didn't find whales for quite a while, until we got near one of our plankton tow (see images here and below) reference stations. On each cruise, we sample plankton in two spots - near whales, to see what they may be feeding on, and at several pre-determined stations where we can monitor over time whether you can predict localized plankton aggregations through pre-determined spots that we monitor over time - days, weeks, months, and years.

We ended up with four right whales around that area; then found two more not too far away. The dives of these animals were very long, and our echosounder once again showed a strong signal for whale prey very deep - between 400 and 500 feet down - explaining why these animals were diving for so long. After several hours of working for good identification photos of these whales (usually of the head), we finished our western survey line and headed east, knowing we were running late and had to be concerned about finishing the survey while it was still light.

As we got to our eastern leg, super spotter Kelly Slivka spotted a right whale blow to the northeast of where we were - and soon found it to be a surface active group (SAG) of 3-5 whales. We headed up there and watched them rolling, going belly-up, chasing each other, and exhaling with loud, chuffing blows that are characteristic of such groups. SAGs certainly look like mating behavior, but they are seen all throughout the year. Since mating is seasonal, so there may also be a social component to them.

After finishing with the SAG, we were very short on time, and headed down our long eastern survey leg. We did see several more whales, including two that were lobtailing - but only had time to get ID photos of one of the three remaining animals that we saw.

Of course, on our surveys we see far more than right whales, although we rarely stop on them. Today we were also able to see fin, humpback, and minke whales; several groups of Atlantic white-sided dolphins; lots of groups of harbor porpoises; and even a grey seal!