Island Quest Whale and Wildlife Cruises

12/07/2024

✨ It’s a sunny brisk day in beautiful St. Andrews by-the-Sea! The Island Quest Christmas elves have been busy adding new local handmade holiday items, local jewelry, stuffies, Swedish dishcloths, ornaments and so much more!

✨ Visit the St. Andrews Farmers' Market, Inc at SJDA, stop over across the square at The Wee Fabric Shop, grab a coffee from Lumberjacks Cafe and enjoy everything Christmas by-the-Sea has to offer! ❄️🎄☃️✨

12/06/2024

✨ Christmas by-the-Sea kicks off tomorrow and we’re so excited to see everyone’s smiling faces! With so much going on in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, there’s going to be so much festive fun! 🎄🎄

❄️ Our Island Quest shop will be open 10:00 am -4:00 pm tomorrow and we are fully stocked with nautical decor, locally made art and crafts, handmade Christmas cards, ornaments and so much more! ☃️

11/30/2024

✨ Sparkle by the sea has started and it’s a gorgeous day here in St. Andrews! Local wood carving in the square, shops and restaurants are open - we hope you make St. Andrews part of your Saturday plans!

❄️ We’re open from 10:00am - 5:00pm with lots of local handmade items for that special someone! Drop in at 205 Water Street (yellow building left of Market Wharf) to say hello! See you all soon! 😁🎄

11/29/2024

❄️ Tomorrow is the first day of our annual Nautical Christmas Sale! Hope you enjoy a small sneak peek!! 😁🎄🎄

❄️ We’ve got lots of gorgeous locally handmade gifts, nautical crafts and décor!

❄️ Join us from 10:00am - 5:00pm for Christmas by-the-Sea. We look forward to getting into the holiday spirit with you all!! ❤️💚

Vicki Hogarth
New Brunswick / Nouveau-Brunswick
St. Andrews by-the-Sea

11/28/2024

🦃 It's a new RIGHT WHALE baby for American Thanksgiving! Learn more about the new mom and the other pregnant females below! Wishing these critically endangered whales health and safety for themselves and their new born babies! 💙🙏💙🙏

🐳'Catalog #3540 ‘Black Heart’ is 20 years old. She had her first and only calf 12 years ago during the 2013 season. Catalog #3940 ‘Koala,’ a 16-year-old female, and #4190 ‘Curlew,’ a 14-year-old female, have not successfully calved yet and would be first-time mothers. There are approximately 70 reproductively active females in the North Atlantic right whale population. Recent trends in calving include fewer first-time mothers, older first-time mothers, and more resting years between births. This means that each female is producing fewer calves over her lifetime. Recruitment of new mothers into the population is expected and is essential for population growth. However, sightings of first-time mothers have been sparse since 2016 – around the start of the right whale Unusual Mortality Event (UME). '

11/20/2024

🎄 The countdown is on for Sparkle by-the-sea and Christmas by-the-Sea.

❄️ The Island Quest Christmas elves have been busy decorating and preparing to see all the wonderful visitors for the weekends fun events!
With handmade crafts, local artists, nautical Christmas and decor, clothing and so much more!

November 30th 10:00am - 5:00pm
December 7th 10:00am - 3:00pm
December 14th 1:00pm - 5:00pm

11/17/2024

🌤️ Red sky at night, sailors delight!

🏠 11 years ago with this iconic view! Time sure does fly and we are looking forward to 2025, year 27 for our small family business! 😁

🔥 Red sky at night… sailors delight!

🏠 A view of the Island Quest office exactly 10 years ago today! Time sure does fly! We cannot wait to welcome you back in 2024. 😁😁😁

11/12/2024

✨⚓ We look forward to seeing all the smiling faces for our 2nd annual Nautical Christmas Sale! ⚓✨

🎄 Join us at 205 Water Street (left of market wharf) for locally made crafts, one of a kind art, nautical home decor, clothing and so much more! Christmas by-the-Sea is sure to put everyone in the holiday spirit! 🎄🎄

Dates:

✨November 30th - 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
✨December 7th - 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
✨December 14th - 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

10/21/2024

This view never gets old. 🥰

📍: Pendlebury Lighthouse
📸: Carolyn

10/19/2024

We always love seeing new work from Emma Luck: Northern Naturalist - she asks all the questions about Thom we’ve been wondering about too! There is still so much left to learn about marine mammals in our area! 🤓🩵

Old Thom. What an enigma. He is the only killer whale sighted with any regularity off of New England and near the Bay of Fundy. While he frequently associates with Atlantic white-sided dolphins, he has never been seen in the company of other killer whales.

Why is Old Thom seemingly the only killer whale regularly using this region? New England, and specifically Massachusetts, used to have uncommon but somewhat regular sightings of killer whales until the 1980s.

Their ecology was a bit of a mystery. Some were seen hunting pilot whales, humpback whales, and even fin whales, whereas others were observed chasing after bluefin tuna. There is even one instance of a killer whale off Massachusetts feeding on squid out of a trawl net!

Is Old Thom a descendant of these whales? Is he related to the whales further north off Newfoundland and Labrador? Are the killer whales that once haunted New England's waters truly gone, or have they just moved elsewhere?

So many questions. So few answers. Some of these tantalizing inquiries might be answered by a sample of Old Thom's DNA. Alas, he is a bit of a phantom himself, coming and going and showing up periodically to the delight of North Atlantic whale watchers...

Maybe someday we'll know more!

For more readings on killer whales in New England, I recommend "Orcas of the Gulf" by Gerard Gormley.

10/11/2024

🩷💚 We hope you had the chance to look up last night. The Aurora Borealis was putting on a show again for the fourth time this year and we are so grateful to have witnessed it again! Nature is beautiful!

10/10/2024

Wishing a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our intelligent, talented, amazing Captain Hannah!

We LOVE you! 😁

🩵⚓️🩵⚓️🩵⚓️🩵⚓️🩵⚓️🩵⚓️🩵⚓️🩵⚓️

10/09/2024

🌈 Passamaquoddy Bay rainbow from Pendlebury Lighthouse after todays heavy rains - a beautiful evening!

📸: Carolyn

10/02/2024

✨October has arrived here in beautiful St. Andrews by-the-Sea as our season is starting to wind down.

✨With a mix of warm and cool days on the Bay - the scenery and wildlife continue to wow guests from around the world! We have been spending our days with multiple Minke whales, including old friends Stumpy and Saw. Porpoise, Atlantic White-sided Dolphins, lots of Seals, tons of Eagles and even a Northern Fulmar sighting!

✨We hope you enjoy a few photos from October thus far, we look forward to sharing more photos of the last weeks of whales and wildlife with our small family business.

📞 (506) 529-9900
email: [email protected]



Canada Keep Exploring
New Brunswick / Nouveau-Brunswick

09/28/2024

✨This Weeks Photo Update:

✨We hope you enjoy photos from our departures over the last week!

✨Sightings have included Minke, Fin and Humpback whales.

⚓As the whales start their migration and we begin to wrap up our 2024 season as St. Andrews original family whale watcher and St. Andrews only Sport Fisher, we want to thank every person that has joined us, stopped into our gift shop and all the folks that are here on our social media pages - your support and friendship is what makes every single day awesome!!

🐋 We still have a few departures coming up so if you haven't joined us yet, give us a call!

📸 Biologist Nicole, Captains Chris and Hannah

📞 (506) 529-9900
www.IslandQuestMarine.com

09/22/2024

✨ Sunset over St. Andrews harbour from Pendlebury Lighthouse on this first day of fall.

📸 Carolyn