Boothbay Harbor is a classic northern New England harbor with wooded shores, numerous small craft and a few larger ones, islands, lighthouses and docks and cottages tucked into the wooded shores.
The whale watching boats head out to feeding grounds created by upwellings of deep, cold, nutrient-rich water. The upwellings feed algee which feed plankton which feed small schooling fish which feed larger feeding fish which feed whales. The whales feed by diving, filling their mouths with water laden with marine life, then straining the water out through their baleen. The marine life is left behind. Surfacing after a dive, the whale exhales the breath it has been holding for the duration of the dive. The classic plume of vapor shows where the whale surfaced.
They spend a few minutes at the surface, recharging their tissues with oxygen before diving again. The dive for Finbacks, the kind of whales we saw, begins with an arched back. The long, narrow body just slides under. Unlike humpbacks, the flukes on Finbacks remain under the water.
After watching them a bit, we let them move off and we headed back.
On the way back, we saw a lot of birds and seals on the unpopulated islands in the outer harbor area.
After 2/3 of a month of rain, it was a great way to spend the day.
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1 comment:
Boothbay Harbor is where my uncle lives and I've done this same whale watching trip! I was pretty surprised to see it on here. We were lucky enough to see dolphins one time, but only for a moment.
Beautiful pictures of the finbacks.
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