2002 SEASON REPORT

We started our season with our usual "around-the-island" bird watching and geology tours in early June. The weather was great for these tours and everyone got to see the birds that we were looking for.

WHALES - Our whale watching tours started on June 20th. Overall whale sightings were good this season. There were more minke whales here this season than usual. There were lots of fin back whales throughout the season and several humpback whales were in the area for most of the season too. The right whales were late arriving this season. We can usually expect them in the Bay of Fundy around Grand Manan by mid June, however, this season it was well into July before the first ones were sighted and it was August before there were any great quantity of them here. Something else for the "researchers" to figure out!

Several of the "twenty something" right whale mother/calf pairs made it to the Bay this season. This is always great to see in a population that has been in such steady decline for so long.

What a season for basking sharks. They were everywhere. There were two days in a row where we recorded 13 basking sharks each day (basking sharks are large - average of 25 feet in length - filter feeding sharks that feed on plankton near the surface of the ocean). Their surface feeding makes them easy to spot and view.

In the "unusual" category were 2 or 3 sightings of ocean sunfish, a real strange looking fish that swims near the surface.

White sided dolphins were with us 2 or 3 times this season and are always a treat as they duck in and out from under the boat often taking time to look up as us.

BIRDS - This was one of our best seasons for pelagic birds (sea birds that only come ashore to nest and otherwise spend the rest of their lives at sea).

Greater shearwaters and Wilson's storm-petrels were the most abundant. Sooty shearwaters and Leach's storm-petrels were very common too and we did see a few manx shearwaters throughout the season.

Lots of common murres, razorbills and Atlantic puffins, some Thick billed murres, quite a few jaegers (both parasitic and pomarine), and we saw a great skua two days in a row.

Red and red-necked phalaropes were common and immature northern gannets were an everyday sighting as were black guillemots.

From Captain Sarah, your host Allan and cook Ava, thanks to everyone who sailed with us in 2002. We had a great time and hope that we will have the privilege of serving you again.

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