15 Humpbacks!! 100 Bottlenose Dolphins
Our streak of finding whales on the CRESLI Viking Fleet trips out of Montauk continues. This time, within 40 minutes of leaving the dock and about 10 minutes past Montauk Lighthouse we found the first of our 15 humpback whales!
There was bait all over – mackerel, sand eels, and Atlantic menhaden (bunker).
The first few whales were feeding on sand eels and small mackerel.
The last were feeding on massive shoals of bunker.
Single whales, juveniles, and mom/calf pairs were seen.
Humpback breaches, peduncle (tail) throws, and flipper slaps happened.
These surface active behaviors can serve many purposes including concentrating prey and sending non-vocal social sounds.
The humpbacks also engaged in surface lunges through bunker. Oh, and loads of inshore bottlenose dolphins too.
It was an amazing day with non-stop whales for over 4 hours.
To see these for yourself, consider joining us next Sunday on our next local trip out of Montauk.
We sail every Sunday, weather permitting, until September 3, 2017, leaving the Viking Landing at 9:30 AM and returning at 3:30 PM. Go to the Coastal Research and Education Society of Long Island (CRESLI) website for information, reports, links for reservations and more.
Totals:
15 Humpback whales (9 were photographed)
100 Inshore Bottlenose Dolphins
5 Cory’s Shearwaters
2 Wilson’s Storm Petrels
1 Mako shark
3 pages of images below including a tail flapping video on the last page!
Dorsal Surface
Humpback terminal dive | note linear scars on right flank
Humpback | less than 1 mile from beach
Humpback, Smog 2011 calf, AKA NYC0011, less than 1 mile from shore, Montauk.
More images on pages 2 and 3
