04-07-2012: More Feeding Humpbacks, Black-footed Albatross all Around

Humpback Whale 8 miles southwest of Moss Landing makes a shallow dive as it feeds on the abundant krill blooms in the area. Photo: Sack 04-07-2012

Excellent day on The Bay. Both Friday and today. Just beautiful. That makes two days in a row with feeding humpbacks and calm sunny conditions. Massive Krill blooms about 8 miles southwest of Moss Landing. Plus plenty of Krill a few miles out of Moss as well. So we’re off to a great start to the summer whale season with clear signs of abundant whale food.

Salmon season opened today and it was probably the best opener in more than ten years. Some are saying even longer. I talked to some of the salmon fisherman on the dock today and they said it was obvious the salmon have been eating Krill. So that’s a good sign because most of the salmon fisherman were only about two miles outside of Moss Landing Harbor. So we’re hoping that the whales start moving in closer. We were on the humpbacks within an hour from leaving the harbor today. They were giving us great views with a a lot of surface time and tail flukes on every dive. I could see the Krill they were eating on my sonar and it was only about 10-30 feet under the ocean surface.

Black-footed albatross cruises above the humpback whales we were with looking for left-overs. Photo: Sack 04-07-2012

We also have been seeing more black-footed albatross than we’ve seen in a long time. They were everywhere on Friday. At least 10 flying around the area.

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