Great White Sharks off Marina and Monterey Bay Humpbacks

Exceptionally calm, glassy seas gave us ideal surface visibility today, prompting a run down toward the Marina coastline where we located two great white sharks cruising just beneath the surface. With northwest winds holding under six knots, the mirror-flat surface gave us clear, unobstructed looks through the water column.

With late-October surface water temperatures holding at a mild 66°F at the canyon buoy, the shallow sandy shelf off Marina continues to offer suitable habitat for white sharks before seasonal winter swell patterns shift the coastal dynamics. Further out in open water, fifteen humpback whales were scattered across the bay, maintaining steady travel and surface intervals.

Across both our morning and mid-day departures aboard Sanctuary, cetacean diversity remained steady. In addition to the humpbacks, we logged four coastal bottlenose dolphins patrolling near the surf line, as well as a group of roughly forty long-beaked common dolphins offshore.

Days with water this quiet provide a clear look at the distinct ecological zones within the bay, tracing apex predators from the nearshore shallows to the deeper waters over the canyon.