A great adventure today on the American Princess Cruises with Gotham Whale – and what a day to be out on the water.

Sea and air conditions: SW winds 5 to 10 kt. Seas 2 to 3 ft. Wave detail: S 3 ft at 7 second, water temp 70 degrees, Sunny, low humidity and 82 degrees

Capt. Frank DeSantis at the helm, the AP Crew was Capt. Jack and Chris. Celia as Naturalist. Gotham Whale – Beth, Celia, and me.

Today was a very good day. We met up with a few feeding Dolphins that moved away quickly. But the dolphin brought us to the coolest sight to see, a giant school of roving Drum Fish. The school size was impressive, and the Drum Fish were BIG! The school was moving east to west, and we stayed to observe them for a few moments. We saw a blow and we went to check it out. When in motion Cow nose Rays were seen throughout the whole day. It’s a quick interaction with the Rays as they dive down rapidly, we saw many rays this day.

We saw the blow again and met up with first whale. The whale was subsurface feeding and staying down for a good time each time. The whale surfaced close to the back of the AP and put on a quick show with a powerful tail throw into some pectoral slaps. Then the whale went back to subsurface feeding. We saw another blow off in the distance, left this whale to feed on its own and we moved on. We met up with the next whale, but it was not one whale it was two. Wow, two whales swimming together. They did a few synchronized deep dives together as they were sub surface feeding together. Gotham Whale knows that this pair of humpbacks, the two whales have been seen in the area together for 6 days or so. We got lucky they are still hanging out together.

The bunker fish were starting to ball up on the surface and the lunge feeding started to happen – tandem lunge feeding! These whales went at it for a good amount of time, they gave us a great show. We were South and had to travel back to get in on time. In transit back we saw another humpback but did not stop. Almost back to the inlet we came across a very big pod of Dolphins, they were everywhere. And last but not least – we were almost in and saw that same school of Drum fish.

A very good day out on the water. 4 Humpbacks (two humpbacks tandem Lunge feeding), 150+ Dolphins, a giant school of Drum Fish, 100’s of Cownose Rays was seen.

Get out on the waters of the NY Bight and see this for yourself. Book a trip on the American Princess Cruises out of Sheepshead Bay you will not be disappointed. Check out Gotham Whales website and Gotham Whale Facebook page.