First day of Fall, we went whale watching off the coast of Bar Harbor it was the most fantastic thing I have ever gotten to do! It was a beautiful sunny day, blue skies with a few white clouds. We were so lucky to see, and the list is long; fin whales, harbor seals, gray seals, atlantic white sided dolphins, a blue shark, a mola mola, and a puffin. The trip began by taking the “free Acadia shuttle” which stopped at our campground, Hadley Point Campground, in Bar Harbor, and shuttled us to the Village Green in downtown Bar Harbor. We then walked about 4 blocks past all these cute shops, to the “Bar Harbor Whale Watching Co.” It was just the beginning of a unforgettable day, the first sighting was 45 minutes off the coast, of a fin whale.
They are very long and sleek. It is the second largest animal in the world. The second time the fin whale came up I saw an eye and the blow hole blew out air and water. Just so unbelievable! We had 5 different sightings of the fin whales. The seals were so cute, poking their noses up through the water.
They actually sleep with their noses up out of the water while they wait for the tide to recede so the rocks will be above sea level. We circled around “Egg Rock Island Lighthouse” where the seals were located. The student marine scientists who live on the island honked the fog horn at us while we circled. There were many dolphins swimming close to us who didn’t seem to mind our presence. Just beautiful animals. One dolphin even jumped into the air and then dove down.
They seem to like swimming in our currents in schools. A blue shark just appeared out of nowhere. A “mola mola”, an ocean sunfish, was our next sighting. It is heaviest known bony fish in the world. It looked prehistoric and hefty and round. We have never seen anything like it. Out in the middle of nowhere there was a lone “puffin” just relaxing in the water. Our tour guide told us puffins tend to hang out alone. Then on our way back we got to see another fin whale who blew two times, awesome!
Our tour guide was a student from the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, they run a nonprofit organization called “Allied Whales”. George and I were lucky enough to adopt a mother whale and her offspring, with a $40.00 donation. The mother’s name is Quartz and the offsprings name is Braveheart. The researchers and students at Allied Whale pioneered the use of photography as a technique to study whales. It was a very profound day for George and me.