Month: July 2015

07-26-2015: More Humpbacks Show up in The Monterey Bay and Moss Landing, Reports of Blue Whales and More

Moss Landing Humpback
Humpback takes a dive in front of Moss Landing. Photo: Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com 07-26-2015.

The marine conditions have been unstable over the last week or so. But we have also had some of the best conditions of the year. So it’s been hard to predict.

Monterey Bay Whale Watching
Moss Landing humpback whale goes down for some anchovies. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-26-2015

The afternoon trips have been taking the most hits with generally windy conditions and lumpy seas. The good news is that there seems to be a mass of ocean life moving it’s way up the coast and into the Monterey Bay.

BBC Big Blue Live Crew
The BBC Big Blue Live crew has been filming in the Monterey Bay over the last week. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-26-2015

Moss Landing continues to be the sure thing for humpback whales as there have been between four and six humpbacks feeding daily in front of the Moss Landing Harbor for going on 2-years straight now.

Monterey Bay Sea Otter
Female sea otter warming her paws. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-26-2015

We have been getting the occasional tail lob or full-breach. But for the most part it’s been routine whale watching. The warmer water temps seem to have driven the anchovies deeper. So we’re seeing some long dives.

Monterey Bay Sea Otter
This sea otter somehow collected two crabs from the bottom and was eating one of the crabs while balancing both them on it’s chest. Photo: Michael Sack, 07-26-2015.

The whole mass of sea life was reported last week south of Point Sur in Big Sur (Humpbacks, dolphins, sea lions, blue whales, fin whales and more). Reports each day over the last week indicate that the whole mass of marine life is moving steadily to the north and into the Monterey Bay.

Monterey Bay Whale Watching
Another humpback shows us it’s tail fluke. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-26-2015

We expect the feeding action to pick up soon as we have been seeing more anchovies at the surface over the last few days. Today we also heard reports of rampant lunge-feeding off  Point Pinos and Marina beach about six to eight miles to the south.

Monterey Bay Tern
A tern hovers above a dense school of anchovies just before plunge diving on them. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-26-2015.
Monterey Bay Northern Fulmar
This Northern fulmar was just hanging out there all alone. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-26-2015.
Monterey Bay Common Murres
A common murre chick and father. After the chicks fledge the nest, the fathers take over and teach the young bird to fish and survive in the ocean. The mother takes off and recuperates from laying and producing one of the biggest eggs compared to it’s body size. The eggs are also more conical in shape than other eggs. This is because these birds nest on cliff ledges. And if the egg gets nudged, it will roll more in a circular motion so as not to roll over the cliff. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-26-2015.
Monterey Bay Elephant Seal
A young elephant seal comes up to the surface to tank up on oxygen before submerging. The longest known dive of an elephant seal is almost two hours. But more routinely they are under for 30-minute periods. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-26-2015.

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.

07-20-2015: Moss Landing Humpbacks, A Handful of Surface Lunges, Elephant Seals and More

Moss Landing Humpback
Humpback goes down for a dive. Photo: Michael Sack, 07-20-2015.

Another epic day on the Monterey Bay right out in front of Moss Landing. Perfect, calm condition for most of the day. The humpbacks started grouping up more today than they have been.

Moss Landing Humpback
Humpback whale going down for some more anchovies. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-20-2015
Moss Landing Humpback
Two humpbacks working the anchovies together. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-20-2015

Over the last week or so we’ve been seeing mainly single humpbacks scattered over a 3-5 mile area. So it was nice to see more anchovies at the surface, shorter dive cycles and longer surface time.

Moss landing Humpback Whales

07-19-2015: Epic conditions, more whales show up in front of Moss Landing, elephant seals and more

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
Moss Landing Humpback whale goes down for a dive. Photo Michael Sack. 07-19-2015.

I don’t think I’ve been out in better conditions. Pure glass. T-Shirts and shorts and feeling good.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
Moss Landing humpback whale doing a fluke up dive. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-19-2015

Between six and eight humpback whales showed up out front and have been working together feeding and staying up nicely.

Moss Landing Elephant Seal
We’ve been seeing elephant seals almost every day. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-18-2015

We’ve even had a couple of random breaches and tail slaps. Today we had massive patches of anchovies at the surface.  We also had the occasional big fatty head of the mighty humpback whale popping out of the water as they did some vertical surface lunge feeding. This has me thinking things are starting to heat up.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
Moss Landing Humpback Whale next to the Sanctuary. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-18-2015.

07-16-2015: Humpbacks, Risso’s Dolphins, Dalls Porpoise, Elephant Seal and More

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
It was nice the see the feeding action picking up a little today. This humpback did this once. So it wasn’t like it was a full on feeding fest. But they were staying up nicely and not doing long dives. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com 07-16-2015

As we turned the bend to head into the main channel, I spotted a blow. The mighty humpback whale. At this point we are still a quarter mile inside the harbor. I usually don’t say anything. It’s amusing to see the excitement of passengers when they see a blow and discover there is a whale not far from us.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
Our local Moss Landing humpbacks. At least a few of them have been right in this area almost everyday for going on two years now. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com 07-16-2015

We have had at least a few very reliable humpback whales just outside the harbor everyday for going on two-years straight now. It’s really quite remarkable. So we’ve kind of have a routine now. We start the trip by heading over to the blows just outside the harbor. At least that’s generally been the case for most trips over the last year and a half.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
Here is a close-up. This was kind of a combination lunge feed and spy hop. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com. 07-16-2015

We always like to get some decent looks right out the gate. And depending on how the whales are behaving, we either stay with them or go exploring.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
Moss Landing Humpback whale goes down for a dive. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com 07-16-2015

Today the Moss Landing humpbacks were treating us pretty good. We had this one animal do a nice vertical surface lunge. So that was cool. Today we stayed out front for about an hour. After that we headed out to where we were getting reports of more whales and dolphins.

We also came across a few different mola mola’s.

07-13-2015: Humpbacks in Front of Moss, More Scattered humpbacks 8-miles out and More

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
This is the yearling humpback that launched about 4-6 times. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-12-2015

Humpbacks are still on the prowl and feeding within a mile of the harbor. Pretty much been the routine for the last year and a half.

Moss Landing Cormorant
Moss Landing Cormorant brings up a fish. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-13-2015

We also heard reports of a couple more long diving humpbacks about 8-miles to the southwest.

We've been coming across this same elephant seal for the last few days. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-13-2015
We’ve been coming across this same elephant seal for the last few days. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-13-2015

Today the whales were making large circles. For the most part, they were singles. Not really feeding together. They seemed to be feeding separately and deep as they were doing about 7-10 minute dive cycles.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
Humpback does a fluke up dive. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-13-2015

We were getting some great looks when suddenly this massive animal completely launches itself out of the water within about 20 feet of the boat. Quite spectacular.

Moss Landing Sea Lion
This sea lion is tearing apart this small shark. They do what I call “mad-dogging.” That’s when they grasp the fish firmly in their teeth and shake it violently as they take a bite. The fish goes flying and the birds come in. Then the sea lion will keep doing this until there is nothing left. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-13-2015
Moss Landing Sea Lion
Sea Lion nabs a shark. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com

07-06-2015: Friendly Humpback, a Jumping Thresher Shark, mola molas and More

This is the friendly that kept going back and forth under the boat. At one point, we could see the tail on one side of the boat and it's head on the other side of the boat. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-06-2015.
This is the friendly that kept going back and forth under the boat. At one point, we could see the tail on one side of the boat and it’s head on the other side of the boat. I had the engines off. So it was a full sensory experience. Let me just say that vaporized whale breath has a salty taste about it.  Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-06-2015.

The action started early in the trip as we stumbled across a lone humpback right out the gate. But soon it was obvious this was not a whale we wanted to watch. It seemed like a ten minute diver. So after a couple of dive cycles we moved on.

Moss Landing Thresher Shark
This thresher shark launched about five or six times. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-06-2015.

After about 10-minutes of running to the southwest I noticed a fish-like animal jumping about 50-yards off to my right. I immediately made a course and grabbed my camera. It jumped a few more times and when we were about 10 yards away it launched right in front of us. That was a rare sighting.

Check out some video from today: Friendly Humpback whales

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
This whale seemed very interested in us. Almost curious. Photo Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-06-2015

There were a lot of whales around, but they were scattered into singles and doubles. I’d say 10-15 whales scattered over about a 5-mile area starting just outside the Moss Harbor.

More video from today: Moss Landing Humpback Showing Us Some Love

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
This was the whale we came across right out the gate. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com, 07-06-2015

But all we needed was this one friendly. This animal spent the better part of 30-minutes under and around our boat. Floating below the surface right next to the boat, then going back and forth under the boat. A truly remarkable encounter. One I’ll never forget.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
This humpback was actually circling the boat. Photo: Michael Sack sanctuarycruises.com 07-06-2015

So things have been looking up. Over the weekend the action was mixed from one trip to the next. But overall amazing. We even had one lone orca on the 08:00 AM trip on 07-05-2015. The animal was clearly in hunt mode. So that was fun. We just really never know. Every trip is different.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
More circling. Photo: Michael Sack, 07-06-2015.
Santa Cruz Humpback Whale Barnicle
These are the barnacles on the rostrum of a humpback whale. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-06-2015.

Santa Cruz Humpback Whale

 

Santa Cruz Humpback Whale
This humpback seemed to want to get a look at everyone. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 07-06-2015.
Santa Cruz Humpback Whale
This was one of our best encounters. I’ve got to tell you, looking a 45′-50′ humpback whale in the eye three feet away from you is a very moving experience. Just ask anyone who was on-board today. Photo: Michael Sack, sanctuarycruises.com 0-06-2015

 

 

07-04-2015: Humpbacks Getting Lively in Front of Moss Landing

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
All was quiet with a couple of long-diving humpbacks when this one started repeatedly tail-lobbing and tail-slapping. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com 07-03-2015

It amazes me how different each trip can be. Even more so, how different each minute of each trip  can be. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to what goes down out there. Nature and her behaviors are unpredictable.

Moss Landing Elephant Seal
We came across this elephant seal as we were searching for more whales. Photo: Michael Sack, 07-04-2015

 

To us a lot of the behaviors we see seem random. Like breaching, tail-lobbing, pectoral fin slapping or friendly behavior. Today was a good example: On one of our trips, we had been waiting for a single humpback to come up from a dive. This animal was doing some long dives and then staying up for only a few blows and then down again. I’m talking a 7-10 minute whale. That’s what we call a ten-minute whale. When they’re doing 7-10 minute dive cycles. After a couple of ten-minute dive-cycles, I usually head out and look for greener pastures. I mean a guy can only take so much.

Entangled Humpback Whale
Unfortunately, this humpback became entangled in crab trap gear. We stayed with this animal until another boat could got on the scene to stay with it until the Whale Entanglement team out of Moss Landing to get out there and try and untangle the animal. As of July 4, 2015, the animal was reported to be off of Point Sur south of Monterey. Photo: Michael Sack, 07-03-2015.

And after this whale’s second dive, I waited for about 5-minutes before I started to head out. Just as I was about to put it in gear, this massive animal launches itself completely out of the water. Then it continued to carry on at the surface slapping it’s pectoral fin against the water and rolling around and generally staying at the surface with short dive-cycles. Then after about 30-40 minutes of this, the animal just seem to leave. The rascal gave us the slip.

07-02-2015: Acrobatic Humpbacks in Front of Moss, Mola Molas and More

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
This whale just randomly breached right next to the boat. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com 07-02-2015

We started out the day with thick fog as we departed on our 08:00 am trip. I’m always nervous when we have fog. I just can’t help it. Even though the whales have been pretty much in the same area in front of Moss Landing for about the last year and a half, thick fog always makes me wonder if we’re going to find whales. Seriously, when we can’t see more than a boat length away in any direction. It makes it hard. But we haven’t been skunked by fog in probably well over a year.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
Humpback whale flukes up in the fog. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com 07-02-2015

These humpbacks can range up and down the whole California coast. Over the last year and a half there have been about 10 whales feeding between the harbor entrance and about 5 miles out. Sometimes they are closer, sometimes they are further. We never really know. So fog is always a risk.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
This is the whale’s pectoral fin. This whale was doing what we call pectoral fin slapping. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com 07-02-2015

Once we got into the area of where we’ve been seeing whales, we just kind of slowed to near dead in the water, looking all around the boat to the extent that we could and listening, smelling. That’s right, often these humpbacks have a foul smelling breath that fouls up an area. After about ten minutes of this, a full size humpback popped up and blasts a loud blow off to our starboard. It was kind of surreal, what with the fog and all.

Moss Landing Harbor Seal
Another Moss Landing Harbor Seal. Photo: Michael Sack, www.sanctuarycruises.com

We could hear other blows in the distance, but our visibility was masked by the fog. But as we inched in the direction of the blows, a large humpback popped the better part of it’s head and body out of the water and crashed down to the water. I call these chin slaps. This animal did this repeatedly. Then another one joined in and followed it up with a nice tail lob.

Moss Landing Humpback Whale
Moss Landing Humpback Whale shows some tail fluke. Photo: Chace Decker, www.sanctuarycruises.com 07-02-2015

Now we’re talking. This is the kind of action we love. It was hard to get photos though because of the thick fog. But these things were going off. We had multiple breaches right next to the boat.

Moss Landing Mola Mola
We’ve been seeing more and more mola mola’s. Photo: Chace Decker, 07-02-2015

As the morning went on, the visibility got better and made for some excellent conditions. We did have some patchy fog as the day went on, but the whale action was fantastic.