Ocean and weather conditions were nearly perfect today. We charge out of Breezy and hit a few dolphins right off the bat. We don’t stop; there are bigger and better things to follow, no offense to those dolphins.

We go off of Atlantic Beach and meet up with a very large pod of dolphins feeding, estimated at 150+ dolphins. It was a very good time watching dolphins of all sizes from newborn to adult out there going nuts, jumping, playing and doing what dolphins do. This year has been off the chart with dolphins, just incredible but the dolphin show is over, it's now time for the whales. We get a call and we are off, a lunge feeding whale is waiting for us.

In Transit we see a slight blow and then another, we get closer and then a big humpback flies out of the water sideways through a Bunker school. OK, we are in for a great show today. It's always nice to see humpbacks doing anything but when they start to lunge feed, that’s it for me, that’s what I am here for! This whale was in the right spot to lunge feed. There were massive bunker schools up on the surface just waiting for this whale to come up and gulp them down, and it did.

Now, I have received word from a few different people that a possible entangled whale was in the area we were in. We are on high alert for this whale, every photo of the whales in this area is important. If we see this entangled whale we follow protocol, as we have done before, and inform all and share the photos and location. If we have to “stand on the whale” until authorities show up we will, even if it means being late back to the dock. 

The whale we are on is surface feeding and lunge feeding. It did many lunge feedings in the direction of the boat, giving all a very good look inside its mouth. We could clearly see the baleen hanging down, its tongue and the top of its mouth. It looked like it had a bunker stuck in its baleen plates; I've seen it before. I would equate this to us having a poppy seed stuck in-between our teeth, ha-ha. The whale was very fast; they can be when they want, and you never knew where he would show up after its dive. It could be next to the boat or a 1/4 mile away. We waited for the whale to surface one more time, for two reasons: 1. We want to see the whale one last time before we leave for the dock. 2. You can't just leave a whale without knowing exactly where the whale is, you don't want to get in its way or run over the whale. (Whale SENSE training) 

What a great day out on the water! It’s now time to go; we met up with this whale late in the adventure, so we had a limited time watching the whale. YES, it was time to go but my day is not over. I went home and processed the photos you see here. I looked over them in detail to see if this whale is the entangled whale the authorities are looking for. The whale was entangled once before, it has healed markings of rope marks. A few open scratches on its lower jaw but nothing to be alarmed about. We didn’t get a fluke shot but it did lift its tail out of the water once. I do not think this whale is entangled but need to see this whale again to say 100%. Maybe today we will see the whale again…Stay tuned.

Want to see the below live and in person? Book a trip on the AMERICAN PRINCESS CRUISES whale and dolphin adventure! <<< LINK to the adventure.

DISCLAIMER - I am not a writer, it is what it is!