The most common types of whales seen during your tour will be the humpback, minke and finback. Atlantic white sided dolphins and white-beaked dolphins are also often seen during the tour, generally in groups of 15 to 50. The humpback whale's average length is 45-50 ft., and can weigh up to 35-45 tonnes. The Calves are generally in the 15 ft. range and weighing near 1.5 tons. The humpback is distinguished by its long flippers, it is almost black with white throat grooves and the underside of their flukes have distinguishing black and white patterns. They are real showmen/women and very agile and often engage in 'breaching'(leaping into the air), lobtail (slapping their flukes on the surface), or will lie on their sides and roll with their large white flippers in the air and slapping the water. The humbacks are usually found in Newfoundland waters early spring and come inshore to feed on capelin early summer. The Minke (ming-key) is the smallest, weighing a mere 6-10 tonnes and 15-30 ft. long. They are distinguished by their small pointed dorsal fin well back on the body and are gray/bluish in color with a white belly and pointed 'beak', which will often show above water before the actual body of the whale. They are seen in Newfoundland waters from April until October. They love to feed on herring, capelin, mackerel and even squid. The Fin Whale (local names of finback or finner) range in size from 15-20 meters (45-60ft.) and weighing 40-50 tons. They are extremely fast swimmers (20km/hour) and are distinguished by their odd color, the left side of the head and baleen are dark and the right side is white. They frequent the Newfoundland area from early spring until late fall and can be seen near shore or offshore during this period. BIRDS: Numerous species of birds frequent Notre Dame Bay. The most common are the gannet, gull, murre, tern, black guillemot(sea pigeon), puffin, kittiwake, storm-petrels (local name 'Cary chick) and shearwaters (locally called bawks). The gannets are noted for their graceful flight. They have white wings with black tips and a wingspan of 2 meters. They are plunge divers and will drop from heights of up to 50 meters (150 ft.) straight down into the water in pursuit of food. They are seen from early spring until late fall. The common murres, members of the auk family, are known for their great diving depth. They can dive up to 200 meters in search of food. The thick-billed murres are distinguished by their thick bills with the white horizontal stripe on their upper bill during the summer. The Atlantic puffin, the Newfoundland/Labrador provincial bird, is smaller and stouter than the murre and is very colourful. It's thick orange, yellow and grey bill makes it very recognizable. The most common of the gull family are the Herring gull, Saddle-back (black-backed gull),Kittiwake (locally called the tickle-ace), Arctic and Common tern.

ICEBERGS
CHANGE ISLANDS
GENERAL/RATES/SCHEDULE/MAP/CONTACT US