Category: Trip Sightings

03-07-2012: Close up looks at Gray Whales, 1,000 Plus Common Dolphins, Rare Northern Fur Seal Sighting and a Handful of Black-footed Albatross, Remarkable Day

Common Dolphin
A long-beaked common dolphin speeds by and checks us out. They will often leverage the energy of our boat wake to gain speed and cruise. Photo: Sack 03-07-2012

Wow! Today was a welcome change. I was beginning to loose faith in the diversity of species that Monterey Bay is so well known for. Don’t get me wrong. Gray whales are great and all. I mean, there aren’t too many animals in this world that make a twelve thousand mile round-trip migration just to breed and give birth to their young. And they don’t eat much, if anything, for the whole trip. Truly remarkable.

And who am I to complain. I mean, there’s 20,000 some-odd of these animals that come across The Monterey Bay twice a year. Once when they’re heading down to their breeding and birthing grounds in the warm water lagoons of Baja, California. That happens in December and January. And then again when they comeback up north as they make their way to the feeding grounds in the Bering Sea. That happens in February, March and April. They’ve been doing this migration since ancient times. So they’re a sure thing if you want to go whale watching in the Monterey Bay. Of course, that’s good for us. Seeing as that is my main goal in life. At least when the weather doesn’t get in the way.

That being said. After almost two weeks of seeing pretty much only gray whales out there, today we were treated to some rare visitors and had a pretty well-rounded day of marine wildlife viewing. Sure, we always get great looks at sea otters, sea lions and some species of pelagic birds.

But today was exciting in the diversity. We started out in a pesky 5′-7′ short period swell making the going a bit rocky. And it didn’t get a whole lot better as we headed into deeper water to the southwest off Point Pinos. By the time we got to the mouth of The Bay, the area we call the “Gray Whale Superhighway,” we were dealing with some 4′-6′ very steep swells. Not enough to be dangerous, but just enough to tire you out from having to constantly fight against the rocking and rolling of the boat.

Regardless, we had some outstanding views of these magnificent gray whales. I love when two of them do simultaneous tail flukes. Unfortunately, I had my hands full manning the helm today, so I didn’t get any gray whale shots. After over an hour of great viewing, we decided to head into deeper water toward center of The Bay.

Black-footed albatross
A black-footed albatross buzzes the boat above a pod of about 1,000 common dolphins. The dolphins and the albatross seemed to be feeding together. Photo: Sack 03-07-2012

The sea conditions seemed to have gotten calmer as we made our way to the Northwest towards Moss Landing. That’s when I spotted the unmistakable splashing and ocean surface disturbance of what was obviously some type of dolphins. Usually common dolphins, pacific white-sided or even Dall’s Porpoise.

Today it was a pod of about 1,000 common dolphins. What a relief. It’s always nice to break up the trip with a friendly group of frolicking dolphins. These animals will often come over to us and buzz the boat, bow ride and jump out of the water as they cruise the area. This group was clearly feeding. So that was cool. And I got to take some photos too.

There were also a few Albatross feeding along side the dolphins. I was stoked to get some nice shots of one these amazing birds. They are very well adapted for what they do. They’re known to fly all the way from Hawaii. They lock their wings in place and just ride the wind. I’m guessing they made some good time with that heavy wind we had yesterday. They’re not usually around here this time of year. We usually see them more often toward the late spring and summer.

We hung out with the dolphins and the albatross for about a half hour before I made a course for Moss Landing.

Northern Fur Seal
A young Northern Fur Seal was just kind of hanging out there all alone in the middle of The Bay. Photo: Sack 03-07-2012

On the way in, after about 20 minutes underway, Dorris came to the wheel house and shouted at me to stop the boat. She gets pretty excited. Sometimes it scares me because I think something’s wrong.

Apparently, she spotted the tell-tale shape of young Northern fur seal. It looks like a brown circle sticking out of the water. It’s formed by a fur seal lying on its side at the surface and holding both front and rear flippers up out of the water linked together to form a “jug handle”. So we turned around and sure enough, there it was. I got some great photos of this peculiar looking animal as well.

Biologists call this behavior “jugging”. It is actually a form of thermo-regulation to conserve body heat. The seal can minimize heat loss to the cold water and warm itself up by “sunning” its flippers. This is one of the many “cool” adaptations we find in marine mammals.

We don’t see many fur seals in the Monterey Bay or close to shore in California. Most are found farther out to sea and way up north in Alaska where the majority of them breed. Although, there is a breeding colony on San Miguel Island in the Channel Islands. The females and young pups do roam the offshore waters in the NE Pacific while feeding, but seldom come close enough in for us to get a glimpse. Today’s sighting was a special treat as the young pup turned somersaults in the water and repeatedly popped up to peer up at us inquisitively. This photograph shows the distinctive shape of the nose and face which is a more blunt profile than the California sea lion, it’s closest relative in Monterey Bay.

You may be wondering – What is the difference between a seal, a sea lion or a fur seal? Common names can be confusing. The Northern Fur Seal, Callorhinus ursinus, is in the same family as the sea lions, the Otariidae. These animals can be distinguished by their tiny external ear flaps and their ability to rotate their long rear flippers underneath their bodies to move about on land. True seals, such as the local harbor seal and elephant seal, are in the Family Phocidae. At least that’s what Dorris said.

03-05-2012: We didn’t go out today. Boat Maintenance, Finishing Up The Last Few Items on Our Annual Coast Guard Inspection List, Final touches on Our New Van Graphics

The very cool new Sanctuary Mobile. This isn't the final design. But it's pretty darn close. Coming to a Monterey Bay road near you.

Today we completed some minor boat maintenance items that needed to get done. Sometimes we need a little down time to get these things completed. The conditions didn’t look that great anyways. There seemed to be some wind out there and a bit of wind swell. So I don’t think we missed much.

I also got some of the final changes done to our very cool graphics for our new van wrap. It’s going to be quite the piece of art. I pretty much do all of our graphic design work myself. You know what they say. If you want something done right… And I always want everything done right. I’m quite the stickler that way.

Speaking of things done right. What do you think of our new website? We’re still not finished with all the pages, but I really like our new look and it’s just going to get better moving forward. Our van is going to have a very similar look.

It should be quite the spectacle as we’re cruising down the road. It’s a full underwater scene with all the different types of species we see out there in the Monterey Bay. Not to mention our cool new van also runs on 99% biodiesel made from local restaurant waste oil. We get it from our good friends at The Green Station in Santa Cruz.

Our next trip is Wednesday because I need to take a coast guard required test on Tuesday. We still have a very light load and conditions are looking very good. So if you want to go out with only a handful of people, Wednesday would be a good day to do it.

03-04-2012: Plenty of Northbound Gray Whales, Incredible Marine Conditions and a Steller Sea Lion Shows up in Moss Landing

A Steller Sea Lion shows up in Moss Landing today. We didn't see this animal here yesterday. Note how much larger this animal is than the California sea lions around him.

Northbound gray whales continue to be a sure thing. We’ve been finding them about ten miles straight out from Moss Landing and they’ve been giving us great looks. But today’s great find was a Steller seal lion we spotted after we got back inside the harbor.

The Steller sea lion sighting in Moss Landing today is an unusual and striking occurrence. This huge sea lion, which grows to 2500 pounds and eleven feet length, is over three times the size of the California sea lion, which resides along our coastline in abundance.

The rare sighting of this magnificent animal right in the Moss Landing Harbor is truly impressive. Perched on the dock alongside its smaller cousin, it towers above the full-size California sea lion males like a monster.

In the last thirty years, the Steller sea lion population has crashed precipitously and mysteriously. The decline is likely linked to declining food supplies and predation. It is now a threatened and endangered species and is not often seen close to shore along the southern portion of its range on the California coast, as the majority of Steller sea lions are found farther north in Alaskan waters. Ano Nuevo Island has a small breeding colony, which is the southernmost extent of its breeding range. Currently 125-200 pups are born annually there. Here is some good news: despite the steady decline over the past thirty years, the birth rate now appears to be stabilizing locally. Keep your eyes open for occasional sub-adult males at Lighthouse Point in Santa Cruz. (Thanks to UCSC Ano Nuevo researcher Pat Morris for the update.)

03-03-2012: Northbound Gray Whale Migration Continues, Plenty to go Around, Still Waiting on Cows and Calves, Orcas

Northbound Gray whales make their way toward the Arctic Sea. Photo: Sack

Another amazing day on The Bay today as we spent most of our time with three cooperative gray whales as they made their way across The Bay. After about an hour of running we came across our first spout well over a mile off. So we changed course and headed more toward shore so that the animal would be plenty far off to our right side as we got into the general area. We observed three or four more spouts between 5 and 10 minutes apart.

Then as we got closer we were able to observe a spout and a tail fluke. They were pretty high spouts and the animal was clearly heading south. Which would be very unusual for a gray this time of year. All the grays we have been seeing over the last week have been heading north. The tail fluke also went very high into the air. Not a normal gray fluke pattern because they’re not usually doing deep dives. They are pretty well just moving along to either get back up to their feeding grounds or down to Baja. We weren’t quite close enough to get a positive I.D. when the animal showed it’s tail fluke.

But it didn’t look like a gray whale from our vantage point. The blow was also a lot stronger than a typical gray whale. And when we got in the general area of where we last saw the animal, we never saw it again. So in light of the facts, we figured this was not a gray whale. We think it may have been a humpback. But we can’t be sure. That would be great news if that turns out to be the case.

After we lost that whale, we headed out to where we knew there were other whales. When we got on the scene of two more blows, these two were being pretty elusive. We saw a few blows and then the animal would pop up quite a bit north of our position. After a few times of this we decided to go find more cooperative animals.

After about 15 minutes of running further to the Southwest, we ended up with three very cooperative gray whales that stayed at the surface as much as they were down. It also gave a us a couple of decent tail fluke views and were pretty much just heading steadily to the Northwest toward Santa Cruz. We stayed with these animals for well over an hour.

The conditions today were fantastic. More sun and calm conditions with a slight NE wind. Just the way we like it. It makes all the difference in the world. Sunday should be about the same, maybe better. Hopefully we’ll come across some dolphins. Who knows, maybe even a humpback or some other species we don’t normally see.

03-02-2012: Plenty of Close in Northbound Gray Whales, Excellent Conditions and Nice Looks

Gray whale shows us it's tail fluke just off our starboard bow. Photo: Sack

We finally had a break in the weather. What a relief. After almost three weeks of short period swells, northwest winds and rough conditions, we finally had a beautiful day with whales 30-minutes out the gate. Lately it’s been an hour or more before we’ve gotten into the zone.

I was on top spotting and Dorris was at the helm. Then I heard her yell something up to me. I guess I was looking too hard. Or maybe the animal surfaced and blew when I was looking behind us. After she said something, I got off the top and asked her if she saw something and she said a whale. Sure enough, a few seconds later there was a blow right in front of us. So that was good. But just as soon as we spotted the animal it disappeared. They do that sometimes when it’s a single whale. We’ve found that solo whales seem to more boat shy. Especially when they’re out in the deep like this one was in the middle of The Bay. They often seem to be show themselves more and stay at the surface longer when they are in larger groups.

So we decided to move and head into deeper water. Then after about 5-minutes we came across another group of three spouts. We had some very nice looks and spent about 15 minutes viewing them. Then we spotted another four blows just south of us. So we decided to go check those out. We ended up spending the rest of the trip hanging out with these animals getting some excellent views as they made their way North.

The Northbound grays seem to pulling into high gear and we’re seeing them closer in than last week. Hopefully we’ll start to see some mother and calf pairs in the next couple of weeks. That usually means that we’ll also start to see more orca sightings. We’ll keep you updated.

It was nice to be out there today in warm, sunny conditions with no wind. We needed this. It’s been brutal out there lately. I haven’t been able to take my hands off the helm. But today was different. Very relaxing with just a small swell and no wind, warm sun. Ah yes. And the weekend is looking like it is going to be even better. If you’re looking something fun to do this weekend, we have plenty of room for both our Saturday and Sunday trips.

See you out there!

Captain Mike

02-29-2012: The weather continues to be a problem. It looks like winter is finally here.

As we get closer to March, it looks like winter has finally arrived here on the Monterey Bay. We have had some severe winds over the last couple of weeks and lots of swell. But not a whole lot of rain. So now we seem to be finally getting some rain. At least for today.

Marine conditions are an interesting phenomenon. It’s really all about the direction of the wind and period of time in seconds between swells that affect boating on the Monterey Bay. Long period swells and East or Northeast winds don’t affect us that much.

Long period swells mean that the period between each swell is generally going to be longer than 14 seconds. Long period swells aren’t usually a problem for us. They’re usually more like big flat mounds moving through the ocean that gently lift the boat and don’t affect our speed or comfort. Interesting thing about wind. From a comfort level, winds out of the Northeast or East don’t usually affect us that bad either. They actually seem to groom the ocean surface.

So we can have 15-20 knot winds out of the East or Northeast with 10-foot long period swell and it can be a nice, comfortable ride out there. But with 15-20 knots out of the Northwest or West and 5-foot short period wind swells, it can be downright nasty. A short period wind swell is a lot steeper than a long-period swell. Meaning, that instead of gently going over a flat mound your pounding into a near vertical wall of water. And then add the wind coming at you creating white caps for the steep swells and it becomes quite a mess. That’s what we’ve had the last couple of weeks. So it’s put damper on the whale watching.

We’re keeping a close eye on things. Our next trip is scheduled for Friday, March 2, 2012. Give us a call and book a trip. There’s still plenty of Northbound gray whales coming through and we’re due for an orca sighting. It’s been over a month now.

In the meantime, check out the incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.

See you out there.

02-20-2012 – Excellent Northbound Gray Whale Views, Frolicking Common Dolphins, Sunny Skies and Smooth Waters

Common dolphin breaches right next to the boat. Photo: Sack

I took the photo above today as a pod of about 200-300 common dolphins came over to check us out. This one just randomly jumped out of the water and I happened to have my camera pointed in the general direction and popped off this shot.

Wow! What a difference a day makes. Yesterday we had some extreme whale watching conditions but a happy, hardy group. So it all worked out well.

But today was just as flat as can be, no wind, sunny and easy going with the living good. It makes a big difference in the comfort level. Just as yesterday, there are a lot of whales heading north. We were with a pod of about six with a few more trailing and we heard of a handful more a little further out and another couple inside and north of us. So there was no shortage of whales. The views we had today were among the best we’ve had. The animals seemed very comfortable with us and actually started to get closer with each surfacing. They seem to be more boat friendly when they are in large pods like that. We also see this same behavior with humpbacks.

But the real story today were the common dolphins that we came across on the way in. They were only about 2-3 miles outside of Moss Landing Harbor. We love the dolphins. They seem to be very interested in us. Often, as was the case today, they will change their course and start moving toward the boat and start “bow-riding” and “wake-riding.” They seem to leverage the energy created from our wake to ride and move along next to the boat and jump in front of the bow. It’s really a neat thing to see.

Here’s some incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.

02-19-2012 – Extreme Whale Watching in Rodeo Riding Conditions and Excellent Gray Whale Views

It’s a good thing we had a seaworthy group today. We had some rough conditions and covered a lot of water. And the 15-17 knot winds didn’t help. Normally we would have turned around out of concern for increasing weather as we got closer to the afternoon and a rough ride back into weather. That’s usually what happens on the Monterey Bay. But the forecast called for decreasing winds and swell, so we carried on in our quest to sight the mighty gray whale.

After a long ride out to about five miles off of Point Pinos, we were finally rewarded with some amazing views. One good thing about whale watching in 6′-10′ swells is that when a 45′ animal is moving along parallel to the incoming swells, sometimes you get to see most of the animal in the face of the swell. And that’s what we got to see today.

It is quite a sight to behold. Usually we only get to see part of a whale. About 30% of their back and then a tail fluke. But today was quite something so see. When the timing happened right, the swell exposed the animal in the face of the swell. Very cool. But the conditions weren’t for the faint of stomach. Luckily, just about everyone quite enjoyed the ride and were very happy to be out there.

Here’s some incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.

02-18-2012 – Rough Weather gets in the way, we’ll try Again Tomorrow

Rough weather got in the way again today. We had two trips scheduled for today. One of the trips was an early 8:00 am trip that we thought we might be able to sneak in before the weather picked up. So we gave it shot. We realized this morning after reviewing the marine forecast that the weather was likely going to come up in the afternoon. But after about 30 minutes of running we realized our efforts may be futile. But we kept moving along at a snails pace hoping to be able to get out into the zone before it picked up too much then just ride the weather back.

It’s kind of nice when you’re going with the weather. So the strategy is to get out there in The Zone as fast as possible and then just kind of hang with animals with the weather behind us. Well, it didn’t quite work out that way today. We never quite made it to The Zone.

We were a couple of miles short when white caps started appearing everywhere, making spotting quite difficult. So we turned the boat and enjoyed the ride back hoping to spot some dolphins, orcas or maybe even a wayward gray. But all we found were sea otters. I think the sea otters are the cutest animals we see out there. So that was good. We’ll try again tomorrow.

Here’s some incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.

02-17-2012 – Great looks at a Nice Pod of Four Northbound Gray Whales, Fast Moving Risso’s Dolphins

Before we got onto the gray whales, we came across a very fast moving pod of Risso’s Dolphins. Usually the Risso’s just kind linger around and maybe cruise along at two or three knots. The animals seemed to be on a mission. They were moving along at about 6-7 knots, riding the swells. Generally the kind of behavior we seen in Pacific White-sided dolphins or Common dolphins.

Then we had some excellent looks at a cooperative pod of four full-grown northbound grays. They actually popped up simultaneously about 30 yards off our starboard bow. It was unique sight to behold. Seeing four backs, followed by four blows and a couple of tail flukes. Nice.

The weather has been getting in the way for the last couple of weeks. We didn’t even run trips last week. It was just too rough.

Here’s some incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.

02-05-2012: Cooperative Gray Whales, Mega-pod of Long-beaked Common Dolphins, Lingering Risso’s Dolphins and Stellar Marine Conditions

Today was the best day we’ve had out there so far for this gray whale season. I love whale watching in Tee-shirt. There were plenty of whales all over once we got into the zone. But more importantly, the whales that we were with stayed up at the surface more than they were under and gave us great views.

Then we came across a small pod of Risso’s dolphins that were pretty much just hanging out in one place. We think there may have been some mating behavior going on as a couple of times we saw on of the animals turn upside down.

The big story today was the massive pod of between 2,000-3,000 long-beaked common dolphins. The animals were moving through the area close together, jumping out of the water as they buzzed the boat and followed us, bow-riding and generally getting rambunctious. It was a sight to behold. We could see dolphins jumping around and moving about in a 1/2 mile area. Very cool.

Here’s some incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.

02-04-2012: Gray Whales, Long-beaked Common Dolphins, Decent Marine Conditions

The Gray whale southbound migration seems to be holding strong. We’re definetly not seeing the large numbers we were two weeks ago. Today the whales we were with seemed to be moving fast and not staying at the surface as much as they were under. But they did give us tail flukes on every dive.

Long-beaked Common dolphins continue to show up with regularity. Today we were with a pod of about 500 of the dolphins that were in a feeding frenzy with a large flock of brown pelicans. We had rare glimpses of dolphins feeding on sardines at the surface.

Here’s some incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.

02-03-2012: Gray Whales, Great looks at Risso’s Dolphins and Bow-riding Pacific White-sided Dolphins, Outstanding Marine Conditions

We covered some water today. When the ocean conditions are glassy and it’s as nice out there as it was today, we love to do a little exploring. Today we ended up south of Point Lobos. Sometimes gray whales will lure us south. The southbound grays had more time between pulses today. We only saw had a handful whales for the two hours we were in the zone. On the way in we heard reports of another pulse.

But we did have excellent looks at Risso’s Dolphins and some bow-riding Pacific White-sided Dolphins and had a warm, calm day on The Bay.

Here’s some incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.

02-02-2012: Gray Whales Still Passing by in Force, Great looks at Risso’s Dolphins and Common Dolphins

Common Dolphins Cruise along side the boat. Photo: Sack

The last couple of weeks have been about as good as it gets for gray whale whatching. We’ve seen dolphins just about every day and the weather has generally been very pleasant. And today was no different. We spotted a pod of about 20 Risso’s dolphins right outside the Moss Landing Harbor.

The gray whales continue to pass by The Bay in good numbers. We were with at least six Grays today that gave us excellent looks and we could see many other blows in the distance. They were doing consistent dive cycles of between five and seven minutes, blowing three to four times and then throwing their tail flukes up every time. Observing four or five whales throwing their tail flukes almost simultaneously is a marvelous sight to behold.

But my favorite today were the pod of about 300 common dolphins buzzing by the boat, bow riding, jumping out of the water and following the boat. Delighted passengers enjoyed observing the animals jumping in front of the boat.

Here’s some incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.

01-17-2012: The Orcas Are Back and They were Out in Front of Moss Landing All Day Today

Orca female and youngster cruising together. Photo: Sack

After more than a month-long absence, at least three pods of Orcas have returned to the Monterey Bay Area. We were with one of the pods of about six just outside the Moss Landing Harbor. We heard reports of other pods out off of Point Pinos.

The pod we were with were in the Moss Landing area all day. I first heard about them from some surfers who reported that they were breaching and splashing about a mile southwest of the Moss Landing Harbor not far from the surf zone. We observed them until just before dark. Hopefully they’ll still be around for tomorow’s (01-18-2012) trip.

Here’s some incredible video footage from a trip in November. It’s one of the best encounters we’ve had.