Month: November 2015

Friday, November 29, 2015 Great Lunging Whales!

Yesterday morning our first trip was seeing lunge-feeding humpback whales before we even left the harbor mouth. An enormous flock of birds (brown pelicans, Heerman’s gulls, cormorants, and murres, among others) dove into the water as the whales lunged vertically out of the water, mouths open wide. I’m sure the view from the beach was good, but the view from our deck was incredible. Here’s a shot of three whales, in different stages of their lunge. Check out those baleen plates, and the big pink inside of the whales’ upper jaws- the last thing those anchovies will ever see.

Both yesterday and today we were treated to some amazing tail flukes, whales parading by our boat. Sometimes the light was just right (I think it could be because the sun is relatively low this time of the year) for some nice rain-blows, as Captain Mike likes to call them. The condensing air from the whales’ breaths forms pretty little rainbows over the surface of the bay!

On both days, we also had the chance to spend some time with hundreds, if not over a thousand long-beaked common dolphins. Tricky to photograph, because they’re so fast, I managed to get one shot of a juvenile and its mother surfacing right alongside the Sanctuary. Any day with dolphins is a great day!

Despite the winter chill in the wind, it’s been a sunny and wonderful weekend so far out of Moss Landing. Monterey Bay has delivered spectacular views, sunshine, and lots and lots of marine life. Come out and visit us and the whales!

11-21-2015 Lots of Humpback Action Right at Moss Landing

11-22-15 Amazingly we have lots of whale action still at Moss Landing. Saturday there were at least 8 humpbacks lunge feeding a the harbor mouth and we’ve had Risso’s and Common Dolphins almost every single trip this week. We haven’t seen the orcas for a week now – but we know they could show up anytime. The sea lions were gathering in a big mob and foraging along with the humpbacks yesterday, which makes it even more exciting. We have space on our 2 pm trip today and well as both trips tomorrow. We are running daily trips all week except Thanksgiving Day (we don’t ask our crew to miss holidays with their friends and family).