Captain's Log

Our afternoon departure aboard Sanctuary culminated in an encounter with five transient killer whales identified as individuals from pods 122D and 49C. These apex predators—the largest members of the dolphin family— delighted our passengers by actively hunting while we viewed them.

The amazing killer whale sighting culminated a series of observations that had been anchored by Humpback whales throughout the day. Over thirty individual humpbacks spent the day feeding voraciously, capitalizing on concentrated prey patches across Monterey Bay. Rather than resting or traveling, their focus remained entirely on foraging, with sightings and surface lunges steadily multiplying as the day advanced.

Surface conditions remained favorable across the schedule, shifting gently from glassy calm during our morning departure to a light chop by late afternoon. While our morning trip focused primarily on the foraging humpbacks, the mid-day and afternoon trips crossed paths with large groups of long-beaked common dolphins numbering roughly a thousand animals, along with five bottlenose dolphins moving through the area.

No two trips on the bay unfold the same way, and watching the water transition from concentrated baleen whale feeding to multi-species dolphin encounters serves as a quiet reminder of just how dynamic this marine ecosystem remains from one hour to the next.

Calm seas greeted us off Moss Landing this morning aboard Ocean Spirit, where we documented a dynamic predatory pursuit. A group of six killer whales attempted to hunt within a massive aggregation of roughly 3,000 long-beaked common dolphins, sending the dolphins into an expansive, high-speed stampede across the surface. Despite the orcas' coordinated approach, the dolphins maintained sufficient speed and cohesion to evade capture.

Stampeding is a well-documented antipredator strategy in schooling delphinids. By running synchronously at sustained speed with shallow, rapid porpoising, a pod of this scale creates profound acoustic and visual confusion, making it exceptionally difficult for mammal-hunting killer whales to isolate and corner a single individual.

The surrounding waters were dense with wildlife throughout the morning. We tallied approximately 30 humpback whales dispersed across the area, working the rich fall waters alongside 500 California sea lions, a solitary Northern fur seal, and extensive bird flocks comprising 200 brown pelicans, 100 common murres, 40 Brandt's cormorants, and two parasitic jaegers.

Fall conditions along the Monterey Submarine Canyon frequently generate dense gatherings of forage and apex predators, but seeing natural defense tactics deployed on this scale remains a remarkable observation of wild cetacean behavior.

A trio of inquisitive humpback whales provided a compelling look at cetacean curiosity today aboard Sanctuary. Encountered during both our morning and mid-day trips, these three individuals repeatedly closed the distance to our drifting vessel, spending upwards of forty minutes lingering near the hull before concluding the encounter with a series of breaches.

Our morning began just outside the harbor mouth, where a small pod of five coastal bottlenose dolphins joined us to ride the bow wave. These inshore dolphins regularly patrol shallow coastal waters and harbor entrances, using the displacement wave of vessels for efficient transit. As we worked further into the bay through a light surface chop, we tracked roughly twenty-five humpback whales distributed across the feeding grounds.

During the mid-day departure, offshore conditions brought an encounter with roughly 250 long-beaked common dolphins traveling in an active nursery and foraging group. Not long after, we re-encountered the same three humpbacks from the morning. When humpback whales choose to engage in this kind of prolonged, boat-side inspection, they maintain clear visual contact, often rolling slightly to track our platform while idling at the surface.

With water temperatures holding around 62°F and a low 3.6-foot swell on a broad 15-second period, the bay continues to sustain reliable aggregations of both odontocetes and foraging baleen whales.

Glassy, calm surface conditions set the stage for our sunset departure aboard Sanctuary, highlighted by an encounter with four killer whales from the well-documented CA39A matriline, including CA39A1 "Hopper."

As mammal-hunting Bigg's killer whales, this family group frequently patrols the deep edges of the Monterey Submarine Canyon. Watching them travel together through a low swell allowed for clear observations of their tight formation and quiet, deliberate surfacings, typical of transient orcas moving through active waters.

In addition to the orca pod, we documented approximately twenty-five humpback whales distributed throughout the bay. Light northwest winds under eight knots provided clean sightlines to track blows across wide distances as the whales moved and fed across the basin.

October regularly delivers some of the calmest sea states of the year here on Monterey Bay. Encountering Bigg's killer whales and extensive humpback activity on the same evening offers a steady look at the seasonal transitions currently taking place in these productive waters.

Mirror-calm surface conditions greeted us across Monterey Bay this morning, with light southeast winds under two knots providing exceptional visibility. We documented approximately 45 humpback whales across the area, continuing a strong multi-day aggregation concentrated over rich forage grounds.

Surface activity was widespread throughout the morning. Whales engaged in repeated pectoral slapping and full breaches, while several groups worked in close association with an estimated 1,500 California sea lions to corral baitfish near the surface. In autumn, these multi-species feeding aggregations are typical of the bay's productive waters, with sea lions often driving schooling fish toward the surface where humpbacks capitalize on the concentrated biomass.

Several whales approached Sanctuary during our morning drift, surfacing quietly alongside the vessel before resuming foraging dives. With water temperatures around 62°F and virtually no swell, watching their movements beneath the glassy surface offered clear insight into their feeding dynamics.

Runs of calm weather paired with this density of feeding animals provide an excellent window into late-season foraging behavior in the bay.

Calm surface conditions outside Moss Landing gave us an exceptional look at multi-species foraging this morning aboard Ocean Spirit. A core group of six to eight humpback whales worked in tight, synchronized coordination, executing repeated vertical lunges through dense surface schools of anchovy while thousands of baitfish broke the surface to escape.

Hundreds of California sea lions and seabirds—predominantly Brandt’s cormorants, common murres, and brown pelicans—flocked directly over the bait balls, taking advantage of the fish driven upward by the whales below. Across the broader area, an estimated fifty humpbacks were distributed over the rich feeding grounds near the canyon head.

Working three to four miles further to the west, the feeding activity shifted toward offshore cetaceans. An expansive aggregation of long-beaked common dolphins was actively working separate anchovy schools across the swell, and we crossed paths with a pod of twenty blunt-headed Risso’s dolphins traveling through the sector. Two northern fur seals were also observed resting at the surface.

It was a clean demonstration of Monterey Bay's autumn productivity, where concentrated forage fish reliably bring baleen whales, delphinids, and pinnipeds into the same dynamic feeding corridor.

Calm surface conditions greeted us just outside Moss Landing Harbor on this morning's departure aboard Sanctuary, where we immediately encountered four killer whales actively hunting California sea lions. In an intriguing display of Monterey Bay’s overlapping food webs, two to three humpback whales were feeding on schools of anchovies in the immediate vicinity, undisturbed by the mammal-hunting orcas nearby.

This close proximity illustrates the strict dietary specialization typical of transient killer whales, which focus exclusively on marine mammals rather than forage fish. While the orcas worked the harbor approaches, the humpbacks capitalized on dense nearshore bait, accompanied by hundreds of foraging seabirds including Common murres, Sooty shearwaters, Brown pelicans, and Brandt’s cormorants.

From there, we ventured west along the south edge of the Monterey Submarine Canyon before crossing the deep water three to four miles out. On the canyon's northern rim, in an area known as the Pajaro Hole, we settled in with another ten to fifteen humpback whales actively feeding alongside a dense raft of two to three hundred California sea lions, bringing our count to twenty humpbacks for the trip.

The deep bathymetry of the canyon continues to concentrate massive schools of forage fish right up against the shelf edge, sustaining an exceptional concentration of apex predators across a very compact stretch of water.

Monterey Bay produced exceptional baleen whale activity today, with an estimated sixty-five humpback whales concentrated over dense schools of forage fish. Across both morning and mid-day departures aboard Sanctuary, whales were engaged in explosive lunge feeding, repeatedly breaking the surface through tightly packed bait balls alongside roughly five hundred California sea lions.

These multi-species feeding frenzies illustrate the opportunistic relationship between humpbacks and pinnipeds. Sea lions herd the schooling baitfish toward the surface, effectively pinning the school and allowing humpbacks to vertical-lunge from depth with their ventral pleats fully expanded. In addition to the sustained feeding, several whales breached nearby, while curious individuals made close, unhurried passes around the idling vessel.

Sea conditions shifted over the course of the day, beginning calm and glassy during the morning survey before northwest winds built to 17.5 knots by the mid-day trip. Despite the building chop, observers also tracked a pod of eighteen bottlenose dolphins traveling through the bay.

Late September often marks a peak in localized productivity across the Monterey Canyon, but seeing this scale of surface-active feeding sustained across consecutive departures is a remarkable reminder of the bay's carrying capacity.