06/15/2026
Sunday June 14, 2026 Mega Nova 130 pm
The whale watching season started for us on June 11th on the zodiac with a sighting of a minke whale on the first trip. The weather hasn't been the best with a thick blanket of fog lingering over the Bay of Fundy. We had heard reports of whales in the Bay of Fundy and even in Grand Passage and we had hoped that we would be seeing more whales, even in limited visibility. Yesterday, our persistence paid off thanks to a sighting by our local coast guard who had spotted whales from shore. The zodiac was able to locate them quickly and it turned out to be a mother and calf pair of humpback whales! Captain Sean alerted the captain of the Mega Nova, Trevor, who made his way toward them. We had been out by north west ledge so it took us a while to get there and it seemed much longer because of the anticipation. The whales were still in the passage but were slowly making their way into the Bay of Fundy. We were able to get some pictures for photoidentification. As we approached we expected that the mother may be Photon who was known to have a calf this year and she does spend a lot of time in our area. But the whale was not familiar at all. Our head naturalist sent the tail photo to the humpback studies team at Center for Coastal Studies and they were able to identify the mother as an unnamed catalogued individual.
Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises proudly contributes its data to the GOM Humpback Whale Catalog at the Center for Coastal Studies, the NA Humpback Whale Catalog at Allied Whale at the College of the Atlantic and to the Bay of Fundy Whale Research and Conservation Society at Westport, NS.
All photos are taken with a Canon 100-400mm in compliance with Fisheries and Oceans Regulations.
