Captain's Log

Calm, glassy conditions off Moss Landing set the stage for exceptional humpback whale activity today on all three trips aboard Sanctuary.

Massive bait balls drew around sixty humpbacks into the area, where they surface fed with horizontal and vertical lunges.

During the morning trip, we even had a curious pair of humpbacks approach Sanctuary spy-hopping and rolling around. Several individuals breached throughout the day in their favorite spot, “over there”.

Our midday trip encountered a pod of forty long-beaked common dolphins, which alternated between playing with the boat and feeding.

Days with this much bait illustrate the nutrient-rich conditions that define late summer in Monterey Bay.

Overnight more humpbacks moved in to the bay to gather in groups of four or more and feed on the large, purple bait balls speckling the water. Throughout the day we spotted these groups within the first several miles of Moss Landing feeding and briefly displaying behaviors such as tail-lobbing, spy hopping and breaching.

Brown pelicans joined gulls, common murres, elegant terns and sooty shearwaters feasting on the ample anchovies present in the bay.

Long-beaked common dolphins cavorted near Sanctuary during our first trip before moving northward. Before long we observed them stampeding towards the western horizon.

The nutrient-rich waters of August continue to sustain a diverse plethora of wildlife.

An Epic Day on the Bay

What an incredible day! Despite some raindrops, our passengers were eager to board Sanctuary and encounter humpback whales. Before we could travel to the multiple visible blows, the boat was surrounded by fifty to seventy long-beaked common dolphins. These robust and agile creatures stayed with Sanctuary about twenty minutes before heading south.

After visting briefly with several feeding pairs of humpbacks, we traveled three miles west and were approached by not one or two but three friendly whales! When these curious creatures made a sharp turn northwards towards us Captain Joey immediately put the vessel in neutral for the whales' safety. The gregarious trio circled, spy-hopped, rolled on their backs, pec slapped and dove around us while our passengers clapped and cheered.

As our morning group disembarked, it was difficult to not think the day's highlight had already occurred. But it turned out we were just getting started!

Our 11:30 group was also greeted first by long-beaked common dolphins. These dolphins have been a surprisingly regular sight for whale watchers this past month.

Traveling west, we were hoping to find afternoon lunge feeding. While we did observe several one-time lunges at a distance, the humpbacks never appeared to gather as a larger group to feed.

As the afternoon wind increased, we observed some juvenile humpbacks becoming active. One youngster, accompanied by Mom, repeatedly breached in front of the Moss Landing stacks. This rambunctious calf continued to breach, giving passengers and crew alike ample time to record the exuberant display.

Eventually, we needed to pass the active pair off to another whale watching boat so that passengers could dock and continue on with their mid-afternoon plans after an epic day on the Bay.

Glassy seas and early morning light greeted Sanctuary as we cleared Moss Landing Harbor. We passed several individual humpbacks before encountering a cow-calf pair, shortly followed by a dramatic breach from an adult whale approximately two hundred yards away from us.

Later a pod of roughly one hundred long-beaked common dolphins bounded in from the south, quickly converging on our bow and riding the waves alongside the vessel.

Conditions remained calm and beautiful for our second trip. Guests were treated to multiple humpback and dolphin sightings. Dense bait balls of anchovies had concentrated near the surface, drawing multiple groups of humpbacks into coordinated lunge-feeding bouts. The feeding frenzy attracted seabirds—including sooty shearwaters, Brandt's cormorants, common murres, and brown pelicans.

In total, we logged eighteen humpbacks across the day, alongside a pair of sea otters in the harbor. The incredible biodiversity of Monterey Bay was on full display which reminded us how it earned the nickname, the Serengeti of the Sea.

Dolphins stole the show in front of Moss Landing today during the morning trip. This large pod of about 750 long-beaked common dolphins fed alongside the humpbacks as well as entertaining passengers with their leaps and somersaults. While the pod had moved a few miles west by our second trip, these aerial acrobats continued to bow-ride, wake-ride and porpoise out of the water just like in the morning.

Humpback whales were also in the area. Our morning departure logged seven individuals working the waters outside the harbor mouth and beyond. Activity increased further on the second trip, where we recorded a dozen humpbacks feeding in the vicinity. As the afternoon wind and swell picked up, several younger humpbacks became active, tail-lobbing and breaching.

Observing such a sizable dolphin pod feeding in the area alongside humpback whales emphasizes how productive the Monterey Submarine Canyon is at this time of year.

Thick morning fog and calm water greeted us aboard Sanctuary as we cleared the harbor mouth. We did not have to travel far before encountering humpback whales gathered directly outside Moss Landing, surrounding the vessel on all sides for over an hour. In total, we logged sixteen humpbacks working the nearshore waters along the canyon head.

The proximity of these whales to the harbor entrance is typical when coastal upwelling concentrates forage fish near the shallow shelf breaks. Even with reduced visibility in the dense marine layer, the distinct blows and low-frequency exhalations made it easy to track multiple individuals surfacing quietly through the calm swell.

After spending an extended period with the humpbacks, we moved further out into the bay and encountered a group of approximately one hundred long-beaked common dolphins. The pod quickly approached to bow ride, utilizing the vessel's forward wake as they traveled through the morning fog.

It was a productive late-August morning on Monterey Bay, demonstrating how concentrated marine life can be right at the harbor's doorstep regardless of visibility.

Midway through our morning run aboard Sanctuary, we crossed paths with a less frequently documented group of killer whales: the CA136B matriline. The three orcas were actively hunting in the bay, moving with the tight coordination and deliberate surface intervals characteristic of Bigg's transients searching for marine mammal prey.

Our morning had begun just outside the harbor mouth with immediate humpback whale sightings, followed later by a fluid pod of forty long-beaked common dolphins traveling through the area as we returned toward port.

Conditions remained favorable through the mid-day trip, with a light northwest breeze and manageable chop. In total, we logged fifteen humpback whales across both outings, frequently accompanied by groups of California sea lions numbering around twenty animals in total, as well as three southern sea otters resting near the protected harbor waters.

Observing transient killer whales actively working the bay offers a clear reminder of the dynamic food web supported by Monterey Bay's deep-water canyon system.

Across our morning and mid-day trips aboard Sanctuary, we logged twelve humpback whales, including several cow-calf pairs moving through Monterey Bay. The highlight of the second trip was an extended encounter with a lively calf that repeatedly lifted its rostrum to expose prominent dermal tubercles before tail-lobbing and banking into shallow sideways dives, trailing a pectoral fin above the surface like a shark fin.

Long-beaked common dolphins surrounded the boat throughout both trips, numbering roughly one thousand individuals spread across the bay. Toward the end of the mid-day run, their behavior shifted distinctly as scattered sub-groups gathered into a sustained stampede, traveling southwest in continuous, tightly synchronized waves across the chop.

Productivity across the water column was further evidenced by dense bird activity, where two thousand sooty shearwaters, one thousand Brandt’s cormorants, and hundreds of common murres and brown pelicans fed. Once in the harbor, a few sea otters and harbor seals rounded out a day defined by dynamic marine mammal behavior.

Sanctuary's morning tour included humpbacks breaching, tail throwing and chin slapping. Some of these behaviors may have been related to the hundreds of long-beaked common dolphins spread out in small, active groups over several miles of Monterey Bay. Everywhere we looked dolphins were headed our way to bow ride and then porpoise off in another direction.

Dense flocks of seabirds stretched to the horizon. Thousands of sooty shearwaters worked low over the swell alongside common murres, pelicans and western gulls.

During our late morning trip, passengers were once again treated to waves of common dolphins while pairs and trios of humpbacks dove to feed on the glistening bait balls of anchovies.

As we turned south into the harbor we encountered two southern sea otters resting in the calm waters and a shy harbor seal near the returning sea lions.

Calm, glassy conditions greeted us across Monterey Bay this morning aboard Sanctuary. Out on the water, we observed pronounced surface activity from several of the nine humpback whales logged during the trip, including repeated pectoral fin slaps, tail slaps, and slow barrel rolls at the surface.

Pectoral slapping—striking their elongated flippers against the water—and tail lobbing produce acoustic signals that carry well through the water column. In calm conditions like today's, these percussive strikes resonate audibly above the surface as well, serving communicative and social functions among dispersed individuals.

In addition to the nine humpbacks, we observed approximately forty California sea lions resting and traveling through the area. The low swell and glassy surface provided clean visibility of the whales' movements, including the distinct white undersides of their flippers turning just below the water line during each roll.

Observing such energetic surface displays in flat conditions offers a detailed look at the physical coordination and behavioral repertoire of these animals on the bay.