09/11/2026
🐋 Photo Highlights: 9.1-9.10.2026 🐋
September whale watching: the crowds have thinned, the air is cooler, and the whales are still here, packing on calories.
Later this fall they'll begin heading south—some 1,500 miles to the warm, shallow waters off the Turks & Caicos, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, where they'll mate and give birth. They fast the entire time they're down there, living off the energy stored in their blubber until they return to these feeding grounds next spring. Every mouthful they take here on the feeding grounds will carry them through.
Numerous mom and calf pairs have stayed in the area all summer, and the calves have grown SO MUCH since May that it's getting harder to tell them apart from the juvenile humpbacks moving through. Some may begin to wean soon, though calves that make the trip back to the calving grounds alongside mom have been documented too. One thing is for sure—these calves have left quite an impression on everyone who's had the pleasure of spending time with them.
And let’s not forget to mention the breaching! We’ve had a few days with so many breaches we lost count from Arroyo's calf, Glo and calf, Rapier and calf, Samara and calf, and a younger whale named Tanzania.
Seals are hauling out along Long Point and Wood End lighthouses in bigger numbers, with some trips counting 200–300 in the herd. The females are looking incredibly round—their pups will be born right here in the Northeast in just a few short months. Gray seals are remarkably hardy animals: a single pup arrives in the dead of winter, in some of the coldest water and harshest conditions of the year, and nurses for only 2.5 to 3 weeks before it's on its own.
Dolphins have been on the uptick too, with pods of Atlantic White-Sided, Short-Beaked Common Dolphins, a mixed pod of both species, and even a large pod of Offshore Bottlenose-a species that is much rarer for us to see.
* Dolphin Fleet proudly contributes its data to the GOM Humpback Whale Catalog curated and maintained by the Center for Coastal Studies.
Photos taken in compliance with all Whale SENSE Northeast region whale watching guidelines. As always, when whales choose to approach our boat closely, engines are in neutral (no props spinning) and we do not move until they have moved a safe distance away.
