“August was good, but the weather was horrible in the spring. It took a long time for the whales to get here,” said Dianne Theriault of Petite Passage Whale Watch at East Ferry.
“You need three things in the whale watching business: You need weather, whales and people, and if one of those three is not here, it’s no good.”
August was surprisingly foggy, she said. Usually that stops being a problem in the Bay of Fundy by August. But whale watching boats still found whales, which tend to stay in the feeding grounds.
Once one whale watching boat finds whales, they’ll tell others, Theriault said, and the last boat coming in from the morning run lets others know as they head out for afternoon trips.
One other difference this year, she said, was that the rare North Atlantic right whales stayed well down the Bay, 45 to 90 minutes away, rather than the more typical 20 minutes.
People do ask whether they might see right whales, said Theriault, but the real interest is in the acrobatic humpbacks which broach spectacularly.
At Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises, naturalist Shelley Lonergan said late season trips out continued to finding whales into October. The larger whale watching boat came out of the water Oct. 5, but the inflatable Zodiac was kept in the water as long as there are whales, people and weather.
“It’s been pretty good this season,” Lonergan said. “July was slow, but we were super busy in August and the first bit of September. There was a lot of wind in September, but it was busier this September than last.”
For the boatloads who went whale watching this year, the most commonly seen whales were humpbacks, she said. “That’s what people want to see, they want to see those tails go up
“August was good, but the weather was horrible in the spring. It took a long time for the whales to get here,” said Dianne Theriault of Petite Passage Whale Watch at East Ferry.
“You need three things in the whale watching business: You need weather, whales and people, and if one of those three is not here, it’s no good.”
August was surprisingly foggy, she said. Usually that stops being a problem in the Bay of Fundy by August. But whale watching boats still found whales, which tend to stay in the feeding grounds.
Once one whale watching boat finds whales, they’ll tell others, Theriault said, and the last boat coming in from the morning run lets others know as they head out for afternoon trips.
One other difference this year, she said, was that the rare North Atlantic right whales stayed well down the Bay, 45 to 90 minutes away, rather than the more typical 20 minutes.
People do ask whether they might see right whales, said Theriault, but the real interest is in the acrobatic humpbacks which broach spectacularly.
At Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises, naturalist Shelley Lonergan said late season trips out continued to finding whales into October. The larger whale watching boat came out of the water Oct. 5, but the inflatable Zodiac was kept in the water as long as there are whales, people and weather.
“It’s been pretty good this season,” Lonergan said. “July was slow, but we were super busy in August and the first bit of September. There was a lot of wind in September, but it was busier this September than last.”
For the boatloads who went whale watching this year, the most commonly seen whales were humpbacks, she said. “That’s what people want to see, they want to see those tails go up
