11-03-2019: Breaching Humpbacks, Risso’s Dolphins

The first couple of trips were quite different than our afternoon trip today. It was nice see some Risso’s dolphins early on into the first trip. But the whales were tough.

There were decent numbers within about four to five miles from the Moss Landing Harbor. But they were scattered far and wide in pairs. And they were staying down for a long time, coming up a 1/4 mile from where they went down. But we still had great looks.

Then as we were searching around on our afternoon trip. We noticed two whales on the horizon doing some chin slapping as they headed west. It’s an interesting to behavior to watch. They almost seem to be “porpoising” as they moved along to the west. Every 10-15 seconds they would pop the upper part of their bodies up out of the water as they moved forward. Slapping their chins down on the water as they swam.

Then once we got a little closer, they started breaching and barrel rolling among other hijinks.

The conditions have been incredible over the last couple of weeks. Beautiful, Fall conditions. Warm and glassy all day long with lots of feeding humpbacks. So far we’ve had the best whale watching all year long. We expect the action to continue through the end of November. There also have been blues and fin whales just outside The Bay.