Montauk CRESLI Whale Watch Summary July 16, 2017

Another great whale watch trip last week. Humpbacks, bottlenose dolphins, fin whale, and more!

We started the day with a plan to head about 15 nautical miles from Montauk, where whales had been seen the day before. As we passed Montauk Lighthouse we received a report of dolphins and a whale about 3 miles from our location. So, we headed there and a few miles later found our first humpback of the 2017 season, a young and active whale. There were about 200 inshore bottlenose dolphins, including many young ones swimming and feeding in the same area. This young whale surprised us all by doing a beautiful full body rotating breach. After 40 minutes and 4 miles with these animals, we headed further offshore to find more whales. 6 miles later we found another young humpback, and 15 miles after that, a massive finback whale. Throughout the trip we encountered various fish, from an ocean sunfish to a hammerhead shark. We also found quite a lot of pelagic birds.

Totals:
2 Humpback whales
1 Fin whale
1 Ocean sunfish
1 Hammerhead shark
200 Bottlenose dolphins (inshore population)
15 Cory’s shearwaters
10 Great shearwaters
1 Sooty shearwater
300 Wilson’s storm petrels
1 Northern Gannet (immature)

Go to the CRESLI 2017-07-16 photo-page for additional images.

Check out a special update from our two day trip to the Great Channel on page 3!

There are still openings for tomorrow’s Montauk Whale Watch, click here for details and reservations!