PLANS FOR 2006

Our season began in late May and early June with some birdwatching trips, an "around the island" trip and a "light house trip. We had good weather for each of these. Good bird watching, great scenery!

Whale watching got off the a slow start with some poor weather in late June, so it was July 1st before we got started - and what a start! 15 to 20 right whales in the area and a number of mother/calf pairs too. And more arrived throughout the summer (50 to 60 by August) and they were around all summer as were 20 to 30 finback whales, 20 to 30 humpback whales, several minke whales and we saw 2 sei whales.

We saw quite a few basking sharks, several ocean sun fish (mola mola), harbour porpoise, some dolphins, lots of seals and many, many, many sea birds.

In fact, we saw more birds this season than any other. Overall the last three seasons have been exceptional for sea birds. Of particular notice in 2006 were large numbers of small gulls - mostly kittiwakes and Bonapartes, but this lead to a real increase in the number of jaegers with multiple sightings every day. We saw the usual large numbers of greater shearwaters, Wilson's storm-petrels and red-necked phalaropes. More abundant were sooty and Manx shearwaters, jaegers, as mentioned above, razorbills, murres, Atlantic puffins and red phalaropes. Of special note in the world of bird watching - on August 29th we saw a Magnificent frigatebird - a first for the Province of New Brunswick. This is a large tropical bird with a distinctive long tail.

Our final trip of the season was our annual trip to Campobello Island and a visit to U.S. President Roosevelt's Cottage.

Our Marine Biologist - We are pleased that marine biologist and educator Laurie Murison was part of our team as our on-board naturalist again this season. 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. Passengers enjoyed the opportunity to learn from Laurie's knowledge and experience.

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