We have had some truly epic days with hours of surface lunge feeding humpbacks this past week. Add the huge schools of long-beaked common dolphins to the mix and many of the trips have been over the top great. Just when you think the whales are going to settle down, then “POW” their activity levels go off the charts again. That describes this week’s trips. Some trips are action packed and others are good looks at many whales surfacing and fluking with a few breaches for excitement. It is an ebb and flow and that’s nature. This photo by intern Emma Levy shows a group of surface feeding humpbacks. My highlight was when nine whales emerged simultaneously.
The Monterey Bay never fails to amaze me. The productivity and diverse marine life is astounding. It all seems to come down to the anchovies. That’s what most of the birds, whales and sea lions are feeding on.
Pretty much since late March we have had massive schools of anchovies just outside our harbor in Moss Landing. So the whales have been within minutes of the harbor.
And that is still the case today. We had awesome, close-up looks at vertical, surface lunge-feeding humpbacks. Quite a spectacle. Particularly when they do it within 10 feet of the boat. Spectacular.
We’ve also been seeing a lot of breaching on all trips. There doesn’t seem to be any time of the day that is better than another.
Although, in the past, it seems like we’ve seen more breaching on the afternoon trips. As fall gets closer, I’m looking forward to those calm, afternoon-evening tours with epic sunsets and colorful sky. We should start to see more orcas as we get closer to October. We’ve already a few nice encounters.
We’ve also been seeing the long-beaked common dolphins pretty regularly over the last week.
And then there are the common murres. These are the single fathers of the bird world. After the chicks fledge the nest, the mother takes off and the father teaches the chick how to fish and survive in their watery world.
The humpback whales continue feeding event just outside of Moss Landing Harbor. They’ve been coming and going within about a five mile area. We’re seeing spouts within a mile of leaving the harbor and all the way out to about 4-5 miles.
Most of the anchovies seem to be deep. So we’re also seeing some long dive cycles. But when they come up, it’s awesome. Especially if the sea lions getting in on the action.
We’ve been seeing these marauding bands of 150-200 sea lions feeding alongside the humpbacks.
It’s neat to hear all the splashing and commotion of 200 some-odd sea lions surfacing all at once followed by the loud blast of whale spouts surfacing next to the boat. It’s quite the multi-sensory experience.
As has been the case since March, Moss Landing was the hotspot on The Monterey Bay again today with a serious humpback whale vertical lunge feeding frenzy.
We also had excellent bow-riding common dolphins. An incredible day just outside the Moss Landing Harbor.
In fact, over the last couple of days, we’ve seen humpbacks breaching at the Moss Landing Harbor-mouth. I’m talking within 50-yards of the north Jetty.