Shortly after our last blog, Nova Scotia suffered a massive “thousand year” flooding event on the 21st of July. Although Down North Cape Breton and Unama’kik itself were largely spared from the flooding, we still received a dramatic amount of wind, rain, and warm ocean water. The fluctuating and extreme weather throughout July, which has been a happening worldwide, has influenced our whale sightings leading to an “all or nothing” experience. July has had some fabulous days filled with many marine mammals, but there have been many days with not a whale in sight.
Overall, our minke and harbour porpoise sightings increased, while our pilot whale sightings were significantly down. There were also more right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the local seal population seems to be increasing, which is good because there have been more shark sightings in the area. There were not a lot of northern gannets (avian flu) and cormorants, but there were plenty of guillemots, eagles and gulls along the coast.
With our province having faced devastating forest fires earlier in the year, followed by tragic floods, we are grateful to be able to tour in our remote part of the world, and thankful for everyone who travelled Down North to tour with us
![Four pilot whales surface in the north Atlantic waters by Oshan Whale Watch](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/18July2023CherylFraserOshanWhaleWatch3Pilots-scaled.jpg)
![A close up of a minke whale's blow hole by Bay St. Lawrence.](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/20July2023CherylFraserOshanWhaleWatchMinkeHole-scaled.jpg)
![A minke whale swimming by a rocky beach outside Bay St. Lawrence.](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/23July2023CherylFraerMinkeRock-scaled.jpg)
![Two adult pilot swims flank a baby pilot whale in the water while breaching and heading directly towards the camera](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/24July2023CherylFraserOshanWhaleWatch2adults1childPilot-scaled.jpg)
![A gull glides above the ocean.](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/25July2023CherylFraserOshanWhaleWatchGull-scaled.jpg)
![A pair of long finned pilot whales breaching showing the distinctive face of one, and the dorsal fin of the other.](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/27July2023PilotsPairOshanWhaleWatchCheyrlFraser-scaled.jpg)
![A northern gannet, large bird with an off-yellow head and black-tipped wings, relaxes in the water looking forward.](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/27July2023CherylFraserOshanWhaleWatchGannetStare-1024x683.jpg)
![A collection of cormorants, largely black birds with skinny legs and a long beak, sit atop of a large, white rock.](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/27July2023WhiteRockCormorantsCherylFraserOshanWhaleWatch-scaled.jpg)
![A clear view of grey pilot whale breaching, splashing water to the side as it angles away preparing to circle](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/30July2023CherylFraserOshanWhaleWatchPilotLong-scaled.jpg)
![Vied from the side: water streams from the tail of a pilot whale as it dives into the calm sea](https://oshan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/30July2023CherylFraserPilotWhaleTailLongWaterDrip-scaled.jpg)
All photographs © Cheryl Fraser.
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