My wife and I headed out today – the Atlantic ocean was flat but rough by the inlet due to ground swells but once you made it out it was flat clam. We headed east towards Westhampton Beach approximately 5 miles east of Moriches inlet. On the way out we saw a Minke whale which is pretty common around our inlet. As we were watching the Minke whale Kim spotted another whale off in the distance. We headed that way and stopped where I thought she was spotted.
All of a sudden she pops up pretty close to the boat and just sat there on the surface kind of like resting there moving slowly and all.
Here’s the video of out encounter:
After that she kept coming up every 3-5 minutes and I noticed my sonar was marking very heavy bait on the bottom
I think she was taking 3 breaths and then diving down to gorge her self on Juvenile bunker or Anchovy bait, then rising slowly to the surface and do it again and again. We didn’t move and watched her for over an hour repeat this action over and over. At one point she came up very close to our boat my wife said what should we do I said nothing she’s not aggressive and she’s moving in super slow motion kind of like when you eat too much so I said just take pictures and videos if I start the engines I may startle her. So she floated right by the bow of my boat ever so slow and went back down again.
After about an hour we left her and headed back in it was so far our pinnacle whale watching of 2023.
-Capt Paul Peluso and Kim
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