Feeding Humpback Whales and Common Dolphins off Moss Landing

Under completely glassy seas off Moss Landing this morning aboard Sanctuary, we encountered roughly twenty-five humpback whales actively feeding across the area. The focal encounter occurred when a group of four humpbacks surfaced in powerful vertical lunge-feeds right through the center of an active pod of about two hundred long-beaked common dolphins.

Vertical lunge-feeding requires precise timing and momentum. The whales drop beneath schools of forage fish—typically northern anchovy in this nearshore zone—and accelerate upward toward the surface with their ventral pleats expanding to engulf hundreds of gallons of prey-laden water. Common dolphins frequently work the upper margins of these same bait balls, effectively tightening the school and creating an ideal target for the surging rorquals below.

Throughout our morning transit, we documented roughly 300 long-beaked common dolphins scattered across the area, alongside approximately 100 California sea lions and 100 brown pelicans scavenging at the surface. The mirror-flat water allowed us to track subsurface movements clearly and observe how seamlessly these different marine predators shared the concentrated patches of prey.

Multi-species feeding aggregations like this illustrate the high productivity concentrated near the head of the Monterey Submarine Canyon. Observing apex predators coordinate their foraging efforts in calm water provides valuable, direct insight into the trophic dynamics of the bay.