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2004 saw a return of the humpback whales to the area close to Grand Manan and we got to see some of them just about everyday. Minke whales, and finback whales were abundant throughout the season too. Limited numbers of North Atlantic right whales made their first appearance the first week of July, but it was August before signifigant numbers arrived in the Bay of Fundy. There were several mother-calf pairs present for all of the above species and there was the occasional sighting of a sei whale.

Lots of harbour porpoise and huge numbers of pelagic sea birds this season - greater and sooty shearwaters and storm petrels were very abundant; Atlantic puffins, northern gannets and jaegers were common; and, in the uncommon catagory we saw a great skua and a long-tailed jaeger.

Whale Rescue - In early September on one of our regular whale watching trips we were involved in assisting in the rescue of an entangled finback whale. While following along with a group of about 8 or 10 finback whales we observed one animal that was falling farther and farther behind the group and as the main group moved on away from us we went over to view the "slow one" only to find out that it was caught in some rope, some of which was trailing behind several hundred feet and causing the animal to become exhausted. We were able to alert the whale disentanglement team for the Bay of Fundy who then came and cut the rope off of the whale setting it free. All of this took several hours - we followed with the animal for about 20 miles until the rescue team arrived. We were very close to the Nova Scotia shore by now and a long way from home. It turned out to be the longest whale watching trip we had ever made. To those passengers who were with us that day we extend a big "thank you" for allowing us to help in this successful rescue!

In 2004 we saw whales for 80 consecutive trips and overall we saw whales 84 times on 86 whale watching trips.

As news about right whale calf births became available we posted that information here. (The North Atlantic right whale population stands at around 350 individual animals. Each winter mothers give birth to their young off the coast of Florida/Georgia and research teams monitor the number of calves born each season. The right whale is one of the main species that we see in the Bay of Fundy around Grand Manan Island, so we like to keep informed on this and in turn pass this information on to you. As the rarest large animal on earth, each new calf born to this species is vitally important to the survival of the species.)

January 23/04 - 6 right whale calves have been reported so far this season off the coast of Florida with the first ones having been spotted on Dec. 09/03.

June 15/04 - The total number of known right whale calves for this year is 16. There have been at least 2 calf mortalities so far leaving 14 surviving at this time. Lets hope that these all survive to adulthood.

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