07-23-2015: Humpbacks, Otters and A Friendly Mola Mola

Moss Landing Mola Mola
On the way in we had one of the best mola mola looks ever. This thing was sticking it’s mouth out of the water. The water color has been amazing. Photo: Michael Sack, 07-23-2015.

We had mixed results throughout the day today. The humpbacks were scattered on the morning trip. We didn’t see our normal pair right out in front of Moss. So we had to go out about 3-miles to the northwest where we had some great looks at two humpbacks. We did a little exploring but didn’t find much.

Moss Landing Humpbacks
Moss Landing Humpbacks go down for a dive. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-23-2015

 

On the afternoon trip our two faithful humpbacks were right out front. Then another couple of humpbacks showed up. So we had four scattered animals on the afternoon trip. We mainly stayed the two that had shorter dive cycles. One of them kept giving us the random tail lob, so that was cool.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale Tail
Notice the unique pattern of white and black on the underside of this humpback whale fluke. Scientists use photographs of these tail flukes to track humpback whale movements. That pattern is as unique as a human fingerprint. This is called photo-identification research.

 

But the wind picked up and made the going rough heading to the west. We pretty much stayed right out front for the whole trip.

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