Sixty-Five Humpback Whales and Feeding Frenzies in Monterey Bay

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.