The conditions ended up being nice all day. But we had to go out past the mouth of the Monterey Bay. We did see plenty of Black-footed albatross. These birds can have up to a six foot wing-span. Just remarkable birds. They’re very well adapted for what they do out there. And that’s fly. They lock their wings into place and soar. Even if there is no wind. We see them going back and forth as they ride the air lift above the swells.
We’re looking forward to finding some humpbacks on Sunday.
Today was one of those days we’ll never forget. Just remarkable. We got word early on that the pod of orcas known as the “Friendly Pod” showed up about ten miles outside of Moss Landing. So we made a course and put the hammer down.
We didn’t even stop to check out the sea otters on the way out. We knew they would be there on the way back. And who knows about the orcas. Since I’ve been with this group before and had an idea how cool they can be, we were on it.
After about an hour of cruising, we were finally on the scene and hung out off to side of the other boats that were there because we didn’t want to crowd the animals. We also knew that the other boats would be leaving soon.
Like clockwork, the other boats had to get back to the dock to pick up another load and we had the animals all to ourselves. They seemed to like that as they started coming over to the boat to check us out. It’s quite a thrill to have these animals slowly cruise along side of the boat. They just kept doing it. Going back and forth under the boat. They kept playing with each other and turning over right next to the boat.
They were actually rubbing up against each other and frolicking all around the boat. We even had two of them come up to the boat and just stop. More often we see this with friendly humpbacks. They seemed to get a kick out of blowing their spouts on the passengers. What a day. And calm glassy conditions? It doesn’t get much better than this.
Two days in a row with orcas. I’ll take that. Also two days in a row with calm ocean conditions. What nice change. But we did have some drizzle for a part of the trip. So it wasn’t perfect. But nonetheless, nice to have calm conditions.
The trip started out good. Within in minutes of leaving the harbor we were on two orcas on the hunt just outside the harbor mouth. But just as quick as we got on them, we lost them in the thick fog. That was very discouraging. The whole Monterey Bay whale watching fleet was just outside the Moss Landing Harbor within about 20-minutes. But we were all in the fog.
Looking for anything in fog when you can’t see more than 20-yards around the boat is a futile effort. But we all tried. We all worked together to see if we could re-locate these animals. It’s happened before. We all work together out there to find animals and contact each other on the radio with a position when we find them.
But after about an hour of inching along in the fog, we decided to move on and see if we could find clearer conditions farther out. Finally, after about two hours of trying, we got into some wide open visibility. Plenty of bird life and whale food all over. But we still didn’t see any whales. A little perplexing really. We were in some good looking whale water if you ask me. Plenty of feed on the sonar, fish marks, sooty shearwaters and calm conditions. But no whales.
Then we heard a report on the radio that the orcas were relocated about 4-miles from our location.
So we made a course and put her in full cruising speed. Just after 30-minutes we were on them. It was nice to be back on the orcas after cruising around blindly in the fog.
We tracked them for awhile before loosing them for about 20-minutes. But we did come across some Risso’s dolphins and had some excellent looks.
But then all the other boats left and it was up to us to find the orcas again. We finally found them again and luckily they slowed down and stopped their slippery tricks and we had some nice looks. But we were we already at 4-hours and some of the passengers were ready to go in so we had to start making our way back to the dock.
It’s nice to finally have a day with calm seas. Hopefully that will continue through the week.
We sure didn’t see this one coming. The forecast called for mild conditions and low winds. We started out in the fog. Which is also where there were two blue whales we missed just outside of the Moss Landing Harbor. When you’re in the fog and can only see 25-yards around you, your first inclination is to get out of the fog and into the clear so you can at least see.
I had reports from other boats that it was clear a little further out. So we kept on going and sure enough it cleared up nicely. So we were encouraged. At least now we could see and the conditions were pretty decent.
But by 11:00 am the winds started to kick in and make the going rough. By 11:30 we were on one blue whale. But by that time, the winds were howling and we were rocking and rolling with 18 knot winds blowing water over the cabin house as this whale was forcing us to run parallel to the now white-capping wind chop. It wasn’t a pretty picture.
But we did manage to get some great looks as this blue whale changed course and came across our bow. We tracked it for awhile but it just got to rough. So we made a course for further in where it was calmer in hopes of finding more whales little closer in. We found them. Two blue whales on the inside just outside of Moss Landing harbor. Where two hours earlier we had come through in the fog. But these were long divers and we only had a couple of looks before the wind wreaked havoc on the ocean conditions. With white-caps everywhere we looked, it was hard to keep track of these two blues. Their spouts must have gotten blown down by the heavy wind. We had a couple nice of looks before we lost them in the sea of white caps. What a difference a day makes.
Hopefully we’ll catch a break tomorrow. The weather has been so unstable lately. Typical Spring conditions.
Today was another one of those incredible days that we never forget. We’ve been seeing lunge-feeding blue whales and humpbacks for the last few days. We don’t see this often. It’s particularly nice since they have been just outside of our harbor in Moss Landing for the last few days. We were on them within about 20 minutes from leaving the harbor. So that is always good.
There was abundance of krill just outside of Moss Landing today as well. We were able to collect some nice specimens for a krill researcher that we work with up at the University of California Santa Cruz. They were all over the surface today.
After about an hour of checking out these blue whales feasting on the abundant krill and circling around the boat, we decided to head out to where we had a massive humpback feeding event yesterday. You know, just to get a little variety.
Unfortunately, the wind picked up solid by the time we got on the scene. We also only found a couple of humpbacks. We’re not sure where they all went. We were in the same area where we had 20+ the day before. But could only find a couple of spouts and the rough conditions made it difficult to track them. So we had to abandon that idea.
The prize of the day for us was to see our first leather-back turtle of the year. It’s actually kind of early for the leather-backs. Especially since we haven’t been seeing large concentrations of jellies. Usually their diets consist of mainly of jellies. We usually see them more in August. So this was a nice early surprise and we had some excellent views.
We also had some really nice looks at a northern fur seal.
What a difference a day makes. It just keeps getting better and better. I can safely say that the summer whale watching season is in full swing. All the heavy wind we have been having seems to have paid off.
We came onto our first group of blue whales within about 30 minutes of leaving the harbor. There were 4-6 blues within about a 2-mile area just outside of Moss Landing. We had some very nice looks of one of them that surfaced about 20 yards off our starboard side. So that was nice. Blue whales are OK. But nowhere near as interesting as humpbacks or orcas.
But they are the biggest animals to have ever roamed the earth. Most of the blues we get in the Monterey Bay can get to be just over 80-feet long. But you pretty much need to use your imagination. Because most of the time we only get to see about 30% of them at any given time. And if we’re lucky, we may get to see their tail flukes. Their tail flukes can get to be 20-feet wide on a full size blue whale. So that is quite impressive. But most of the time they don’t show their tail flukes.
Early on we had reports of at least twenty humpbacks and a handful more of blue whales about 5 miles from where we came across our first blue whales. On top of that, there were two killer whales in same area we were watching the blues just outside of Moss.
So after we had our fill of the blues, we started tracking the orcas. These were two regular visitors to the Monterey Bay. We call them “Stubby” and “Fat Fin”. “Stubby” was named on account of his mangled dorsal fin. It’s kind of sad. It takes away from some of his majesty. No one knows how his fin became mangled. But it’s cut off about 2-feet above his body. “Fat Fin” is so named because the base of his dorsal is quite fat. We always see these two together. So we had a couple of nice looks at these two before we headed out to the mother lode of humpbacks and the real show of the day about 4-miles away.
There were at least 20-30 whales in about a 2-3 mile area. We had at least 10 humpbacks and a couple of blue whales feeding in the area with a nice flock of shearwaters. Regular lunge feeding about every 5-minutes, Tail-fluking and pectoral fin slapping made for an excellent time of whale watching. We also had at least one close-up lunge feed by two humpbacks right next to the boat. A couple of times we watched in amazement as three humpbacks lunge-fed upside down and all we could see was a mess of throat pleats as they broke the surface. It was awesome.
The conditions were nice overall, but there was a pesky short period lump to the ocean surface. So I had my hands full keeping the boat in a comfortable position. I didn’t get a chance to get any good photographs because I had to keep the boat straight and couldn’t take my hands off the helm long enough to shoot any decent photos.
One thing is for sure. The Monterey Bay has come alive with a large concentration of whales and dolphins.
Today was about as good as it gets for weather. Glassy ocean conditions, no wind and no swell. Tee-shirts and shorts. What a delight. Then on top of that we had one of the best orca encounters all year.
We started out heading for where we saw humpbacks yesterday. But by the time we got on them, they were about 14 miles out. But we did have some very nice looks.
Not long after we got on them, we heard reports of orcas to the south. The problem was that they were about 10 miles away. But they were moving north toward our location so there was hope. It was a hard call because we had just driven for about an hour and a half to get on these two humpbacks. We decided to spend another 10-15 minutes with the humpbacks before setting out on our orca quest.
The good news is that we had scattered Risso’s dolphins and scattered Pacific white-sided dolphins. We were coming across them almost the whole way. We also came across a couple of more humpbacks as we raced toward the position of the orcas.
We weren’t sure what they were hunting. But they killed something. We believe it could have been an elephant seal. Because usually when they get a sea lion or harbor seal, we’ll see the unlucky animal at the surface trying to escape. But because elephant seals spend most of their time deep underwater, that’s usually where they get attacked. And then there was the unmistakable smell of blubber in the air.
When they finally made the kill, things got a little easier as they stopped moving all over the place. It was a challenge at first. They were moving around fast. Almost too fast for us to even keep up. They would do these half mile zig zags at 10-12 knots. We ended up spending the rest of the trip watching them feed just below the water. They also went under the boat a couple of times as they did a drive by to check us out.
It looks like the blue whales are here for the season. Which historically is until the end of July. We’ve been having some real nice encounters as these 80’+ animals cruise by the boat while on the hunt for Krill.
Although there have been a few days where we’ve only seen blue whales, the humpbacks are still coming and going and should be here well into October. Today we had nice looks at both blue whales and humpbacks as well as Risso’s dolphins and Pacific White-sided dolphins.
Conditions were a little rough, overcast and cold. And it’s pretty well been like that over the last week or so. It’s been real hard to get any good photos because I’ve had to keep my hands on the helm the whole time to keep the boat well positioned. But the conditions seem to be settling down over the next few days making for a nice ride and good spotting conditions. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some good photographs too.
The blue whales are starting to show up. We were with at least two blue whales yesterday and had reports of at least five in the area. We also had a quick look at a stealthy humpback and a mixed pod of Pacific White-sided and Risso’s dolphins.
The weather has calmed down nicely and we expect the marine conditions to be nice over the next few days.