2005 PAGE

Our season began with the usual bird watching trips to the Murre Ledges in Late May followed be our "around Grand Manan" trips. We had great weather for these trips and the birds and scenery did not let us down.

Our whale watching trips began on June 20th. There were a number of finback, minke and hump back whales already in the area then and the first North Atlantic right whales showed up the week of July 3rd. Speaking of right whales, a near record number of calves were born this year - 28 that we know of. Many of these were mothers known to bring their calves to the Bay of Fundy, so we had some great viewing this summer. Over all the whale sightings were great. We saw some Atlantic white-sided dolphins this season. They have been absent from the Bay for 2 seasons or so and this was a welcome return.

The seas birds were especially abundant this season, with a noticed increase in sightings of Atlantic Puffins, black-leged kittiwakes, northern gannets, murres, razorbills and sooty shearwaters. In the unusual catagory was a sighting on October 3rd of three band-rumped storm petrels, a first for the area. This is a tropical mid-Atlantic Ocean species, but with all of the tropical storms and hurricanes this fall these birds ended up in the Bay of Fundy.

In 2005 we introduced marine biologist and educator Laurie Murison as our on-board naturalist. Laurie is a leading authority on the Bay of Fundy and has been working with the whales and other marine life of the Bay since 1982. She is a lecturer for Elderhostel (Marathon Inn), Whale Camp and other naturalist groups visiting the Island and is the Managing Director of the Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station and Museum. Each summer Laurie has worked as a naturalist on a whale watching boat and has spent well over 1000 days on the Bay of Fundy with the whales. People of all ages and backgrounds enjoyed this opportunity to learn from Laurie's knowledge and experience.

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