Sorry about not updating the Captain’s Log over the last couple of weeks. I injured my hand/wrist pretty bad so I’ve been having a hard time shooting and writing. Very hard to type. So I’ll have to be short on the text for another few days. Trying to type and operate computer, but it’s still a bit painful. But I did manage to pop off a few decent photo’s this morning. So here they are. I should be back at it by Friday.
Epic times in the Moss Landing Marine Park. The humpback whale action has been constant over the last few weeks right out in front of Moss Landing. We have had consistent large numbers of humpbacks within a mile or two of the harbor. At least 20-30 whales working in groups as well as scattered about.
There has also been consistent but random lunge feeding with 3-4 whales popping their big fatty heads up out of the water simultaneously with mouths agape chasing anchovies out of the water. It hasn’t been rampant lunge-feeding, but enough to to get some amazing looks.
There was one day last week when we had many whales breaching all over pretty much all day. So that was incredible.
On our last trip today just as we were heading in, we came across one of our best orcas encounters ever. These four killer whales had a harbor seal pup pinned up against the Sanctuary. Passengers had quite an amazing close up encounter. At some points they were close enough to touch. Of course, we do not allow touching. Absolutely no petting the killer whales please. What a day. They were still out front of Moss Landing at dark. So we’ll see what happens tomorrow. If I wanted to see killer whales, I would get on one of our boats tomorrow. You never know. Life in Moss Landing is good. Maybe not so good if your a harbor seal. But I’m just saying.
Over the last few days, we’ve been seeing the best action this year on all trips, all day long. And the marine conditions have been excellent. It doesn’t get much better than this.
We also saw 200-300 Long-Beaked common dolphins and large groups of the feeding and breaching humpback whales. This has been going on for the last few days. Epic sightings.
Most trips today had humpbacks approach the Sanctuary within 5 feet to show us some love. us some love. The afternoon trip was over the top. We had multiple lunge-feeding, breaching, tail-lobbing and more. We also saw a massive 8-foot mola mola.
Tom Steinstra was serious when he called what’s happening in Moss Landing right now “The real greatest show on earth.” Check out this video and you’ll see what he means:
There has been an absolutely remarkable spectacle happening just outside of the Moss Landing Harbor over the last three to four days. Fifteen plus humpback whales have been feeding together on a mass scale.
The main reason this happens every year just outside of Moss Landing Harbor is because of a very unique geological feature found just outside the harbor.
It’s called the Monterey Bay Submarine Canyon. And the formation begins right at the Moss landing Harbor entrance.
It’s larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon. Within the Monterey Bay The Canyon can get to over 6,000 feet deep. Further outside the Monterey Bay The Canyon can get to 12,000 feet deep. This is known as an upwelling zone. We see massive marine life productivity along The Canyon ledges. Fortunately for us, it all starts right at the Moss Landing Harbor entrance. So we see massive humpback whale feeding events within five minutes of leaving the harbor.
There has been a big change over the last few days. The anchovies seemed to have bunched up nicely and it’s bringing the humpbacks and sea lions together. We’ve been seeing between 15-20 whales in front of Moss Landing for months now. However, they’ve been pretty well scattered over 2-3 mile area. They’ve also been coming up one at a time, breathing and going down. They have also been generally staying down longer with short surface times.
Over the last few days we’ve had 10-15 whales working with about 100 sea lions as they feast on the anchovies. Today, they were all right there next to each other and coming up all at once. It’s quite a spectacle.
First all the sea lions start popping up, splashing and barking. Then all the whales start popping up within feet of one another. The loud sound of their blows blasting one after another as they all surface. This is more what we were seeing during last summer’s massive feeding frenzy.
They’ve also been doing more surface lunge-feeding, spy hopping, breaches and tail-lobbing. The action seems to heating up. We’ll see what happens on Friday. Stay tuned for updates.
More humpbacks seemed to have shown up over the last few days. We have also been seeing large areas of anchovies at the surface.
At first the massive schools of anchovies appear darker areas of water. I’m talking large areas, like 1/2 mile or more in diameter. As you get closer and look down into the water, all you can see is anchovies. Right there at surface.
This has created perfect conditions for vertical surface lunge-feeding. Although we have no been seeing rampant lunge-feeding, there have been the occasional big, fatty whale heads popping up out of the water.
Today was all about the breaching and tail-lobbing. We had very active whales today. Many, many breaches, tail-lobs and tail slaps. It was remarkable. All day long on all trips, the jumping didn’t stop.
The marine conditions have been stellar over the last few days. We have also had more humpbacks show up outside of Moss Landing. We started out this morning with an 08:00 am trip. We had decent visibility to the South and to the West. But there was some fog to the North and to the Northwest.
We left the harbor going very slow. If there were any whales close by I didn’t want to miss them. Because there was a kind of light fog that made our visibility come and go. The fog did start to clear pretty well. But we still didn’t see any whales. They were not where they have been.
But I had the best visibility to the southwest and I could also see large numbers of sooty shearwater birds in that direction. So I made a course for the Southwest and followed the south ledge for about 4-5 miles. I didn’t see anything. I started to get worried. No whales for going on an hour. I don’t know when the last time this happened. I think the last time it took longer than an hour to find whales was going on two years now. This was disturbing. So I decided to head back across the ditch to the north ledge and see if anything was going on over there.
Soon I noticed splashing. Looked like dolphins. So I got off the roof, took the helm back and made a course for the splashing dolphins. That would be the long-beaked common dolphins.
So we spent about 30-minutes cruising around with about 30-50 dolphins as they rode the bow, alongside the boat and in our wake. That’s always fun.
But after a while we needed to start making our way back to the harbor. That’s when I noticed a couple of blows to the north on the inside of the Pajaro Hole. And then two more. And six more. The next thing we knew we were in them. With 10-12+ whales working a 1/2 mile area. They were all around. They would come together and we would see eight whales coming up and cruising by the boat right next to each other. It was some good watching. They were staying up good with short dive times and not going very far when they came up.
And this was pretty much the story for all the trips today. Many whales. But they moved about 2.5-miles to the North.