Month: September 2013

09-23-2013 A Whale of a Week so far!

 

Surface lunge-feeding Humpback near Moss Landing
Surface lunge-feeding Humpback near Moss Landing

This Photo by Giancarlo Thomae shows the inside of a whale’s mouth with the two rows of baleen and the pink palate. Note the tiny anchovies escaping from the gaping whale mouth. This week has been quite incredible aboard Sanctuary and on the Monterey Bay. The whale action really picked up over the weekend with many breaching, lobtailing and pec slapping whales. Then the group lunge-feeding began. Quite the spectacle with as many as nine whales surfacing in synchrony with their massive mouths agape and anchovies leaping for the lives. The conditions got wild for our afternoon trips this past weekend, causing us to cancel our Saturday 3 pm, but the Sunday 3 pm went well with continued awesome sightings. Monday the massive lunge feeding event had subsided near Moss but there were incredible sightings more to the northwestern part of the bay. Our trips are filling up fast as word spreads about the best September ever on Monterey Bay for whale watching.

09-17-2013 Synchronized Swimming Gone Wild

Photo:Dorris Welch 09/17/2013
Photo:Dorris Welch 09/17/2013

Today was wild at Moss Landing with a tightly packed mob of California sea lions and a dozen close-knit humpback whales swimming circles around a school of anchovies for hours. Sanctuary was instantly surrounded by whales and sea lions as soon as we exited the harbor this morning. We spent over three mesmerizing hours amongst this enthralling event. As we sat there in neutral, the whole gang would swim right towards the boat rapidly and whales surfaced over an over again only feet from the boat. At one point there were twenty whales within a quarter mile of the boat and more in the distance. The thrill of having so many whales so close swimming synchronously surrounding the boat is one we will never forget. This September is one for the record books in Monterey Bay whale watching history!

09-12-2013 The “Whale Soup” phenomena continues

Another steller day on the bay today with at least fifty humpback whales cruising around us and as far as we could see. We had breaches, tail lobs, pec slaps and lunging – the full suite of behaviors. At one point a humpback got caught up in the kelp and shook its giant tail fluke to shed the kelp. Risso’s dolphins were awesome today as well. The highlight today was when a huge whale popped up only feet from the bow and then cruised along the side of the boat in clear water so all could see it’s body below. Then a pod of dolphins we were watching turned and chased the whale! Pretty cool. We ended the trip with a massive Steller Sea Lion on the MLA buoy. A picture perfect day!

09-11-2013 Incredible Humpback Whale Action Continues Here

I missed the last six days of whale megapods swarming outside Moss Landing as I was down in Ventura and the Channel Islands with our sailboat. I had to see it with my own eyes today to really believe it. Wow! Everywhere you gaze, there are many whales surfacing as far as you can see. It is like Yellowstone on the ocean. Geyser-like whale blows going off all around you. The bay is alive with food right now and the whales, dolphins, sea lions and birds are having a field day. Then exquisitely calm conditions and lighting are an added bonus. The real treat today was the Risso’s dolphins playing around the humpbacks for the entire trip. We saw more breaching dolphins than whales today (closer, too). It is unusual to have Risso’s hanging with humpbacks, but the food was there and they were going for it. Another treat was a brief glimpse of some very speedy Dall’s porpoise. The time is right to enjoy Monterey Bay.

09-06-2013 Massive amounts of feeding humpbacks are in Monterey Bay now!

The action is just getting better with humpbacks all over the bay feeding like crazy on schools of anchovies. Only three miles west of Moss Landing the Sanctuary was in the center of a cluster of 20 humpback whales. Just amazing. Mike and Dorris are actually missing the action as we are down south cruising the Channel Islands in our sailboat while our trusty crew, Captain Cory and biologists Giancarlo and Chase are manning the Sanctuary. Now is the time to hop aboard and enjoy the exceptional September seas and abundant marine life on the bay. We have some spots open for our Sunday trip at 10 am.

09-2-2013 So Many Humpbacks

Moss Landing Humpback Whale Spy Hop
Spy-hopping humpback whale. Photo: Peter Hutchinson.

Today we had to go out a few miles to find whales, but once we did we hit the jackpot! The circling close to Moss Landing came to an end a few days ago.

Here are some photos that we are posting from a trip the day before. They were all photographed by passenger Peter Hutchinson. This is what we’ve been seeing lately.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale Breach
Chronic Breacher. Photo: Peter Hutchinson.

The good news is the whales are more actively feeding and there are more whales. We had whales on both sides of the boat, in front of the boat and sometimes behind the boat too. We got to see all of the wonderful humpback behaviors we hope for – breaching (from a distance, but a synchronous double breach), tail lobbing, lungefeeding, pec fin slapping, trumpeting and a few close swim bys.

Moss Landing Breaching Humpback
This humpback just kept breaching. Photo: Peter Hutchinson.

We even got some intense whiffs of whale breath. The most unusual sighting was a huge mola (ocean sunfish) that breached clear of the water twice. You never know what you will see out there. We still have some space on tomorrow’s trip, Tuesday.

Moss Landing Humpback whale breaching
Humpback breaching again and again and again… Photo: Peter Hutchinson.

Then we take a few well-deserved days off the water and back out on Friday through Monday for 10 am trips. Come on out!

09-1-2013 Wonderful Humpback Whale action today

Things really changed today out on Monterey Bay. We had a large group of humpback whales actively surface lunge feeding. The anchovies were near the surface so the whales came plowing straight up with their huge mouths open. What a sight! We’ve been waiting for this action to happen and finally it has. We also had some breaches and tail lobs today. This was a welcome change after several days of sleepy whales just logging and not really putting on a show. Let’s hope they finish off our summer season with a bang tomorrow. We still have some spots for our 10 am trip. Come on aboard!