This humpback almost looked like it was yawning. It just sat there with it mouth open. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com 10-27-2014.
There seems to be no end in sight as the humpbacks continue to feed in front of Moss Landing. They’ve been coming and going between just outside to harbor mouth to 4-5 miles out.
We continue to see large numbers of sea lions feeding with the humpbacks. It’s a pretty wild spectacle to behold. When it is calm enough, we can turn the engine off and wait.
Looking around the boat, the only sound is the light swell sloshing against the hull.
Then the next thing we know, sea lions start coming up around the boat. First a just a few start coming up. Then suddenly they all come up at once. All 200+ of them. Splashing and barking.
This is soon followed by 4-6 humpbacks whales surfacing in the middle of the sea lions just off our starboard side.
They make their presence known with a loud blast from their massive nostrils as the sea lions scatter.
It really doesn’t get much better than this. At least that’s what we keep thinking. And then we have 10-15 humpback whales swarm the boat! It’s really hard to imagine. Our boat is 43′ long. About 30 tons in weight. Most of the whales around us today each weighed over 30-tons.
Today, once we got onto the scene of where we were seeing spouts, we slowed the boat and put her into neutral.
The next thing we knew, we were in them. Literally. We had 10-15 whales interested in us.
They were popping up all around the boat. And these animals were not shy. They regularly popped up next to the boat with the starling blast of it’s spout.
And then there were the sea lions. We have been seeing the whales and sea lions feeding in the same area a lot this year.
Epic fall conditions are here. October and November are by far the best time months for whale watching on The Monterey Bay.
It’s been warm, with little wind and glassy ocean conditions most of the day. We’ve had a couple of days where the chop picked up for a couple of hours during mid-day.
The afternoon trips have been my favorites lately. The lighting is spectacular. Sunsets from the water are remarkable.
Everything and everyone has this warm orange glow about them from the low in the sky sun reflecting off the ocean.
And then there is the marine life. We’ve been seeing many surface-feeding humpback whales. We’ve had some really solid vertical lunge-feeding. This is when one or more humpbacks chase a swarm of shallow anchovies from depth up out of the water.
It happens like this: We see a bubble blast, followed by a swarm of anchovies jumping out of the water and then the gaping jaws of the mighty humpback whale. Baleen, throat pleats and all.
We’ve also been seeing the orcas passing through randomly. But now is a good time to see the orcas. But we never know with them.
Over the last few days we’ve been seeing a lot of co-feeding going with the sea lions and humpback whales. Being in the middle of 200 sea lions and 10-15 humpback whales is intense experience. The noise and splashing of all the sea lions. The loud trumpet blows of 45′-50′ humpbacks blasting right next to the boat. The taste of a spout as an upwind humpback blasts 10′ upwind of the boat. It has a salty quality about it. Just incredible.
It should just keep getting better until the end of November.