Month: October 2017

10-08-2017: More Lunge-feeding, Rough Conditions Make For Rough Going

Monterey Bay Lunge-feeding Humpback Whale
One of two humpbacks we were with today that were lunge-feeding.

More lunge-feeding, but rough conditions make the going tough. The day started out lumpy. We were pretty much rocking and rolling right out the gate. That was the word of the day. Not our normal Fall conditions. We usually don’t see such confused seas. We had some mixed swell with a solid unusual late-season south ground swell and a solid West swell. We had to cancel the afternoon trips.
Most of the humpbacks were further out today. And because of the conditions we had a hard time getting out to them. Luckily we came on to a couple regular lunge-feeders. They were coming up with nice lunges about every ten minutes. We even had a couple of massive vertical lunges where they exposed their pink ventral throat pleats. Hopefully conditions will improve today. Stay tuned.

10-07-2017: Humpbacks Still Feeding with Sea Lions, Single Male Orca Shows Up

Moss Loss Landing Orca
Single male orca. This animal was being very slippery. There were four boats in the area and we kept loosing it. At least we had a couple of decent looks.

The feeding humpbacks are still the main show in the Monterey Bay. Most of the best action has been on the South ledge of the canyon. So that’s where we’ve been focusing.

Monterey Bay Humpback Whale Tail flukes
Fluking Humpback Whales.
Monterey Bay Breaching Humpback Whale
This young humpback breached multiple times.

But we also came across two feeding humpbacks just off of Pajaro Dunes towards the end of the day. The afternoon/evening sea conditions whipped up pretty good by three or four o’clock. So it made for some challenging operations. Limited our ability to maneuver because of lumpy seas. But we did get some good looks at lunge-feeding humpbacks. So that was nice.

Moss Landing Feeding Humpback Whales
Humpback whales feeding with sea lions.

The humpbacks seem to be kicking it into overdrive on the feeding. Especially the ones that are heading south to their calving and breeding grounds off of Southern Mexico and Central America. They know they won’t be eating much for the next couple of months. So there doing there last feeding push before they start their journey in late November and early December.

Monterey Bay Humpback Whale Tail Fluke
Monterey Bay Humpback Whales show us their tail flukes.
Moss Landing California Brown Pelican
This is a close up of the California Brown Pelican.
Moss Landing California Brown Pelican
Moss Landing California Brown Pelican flys by us.
Moss Landing Sunset
The sunsets have been incredible out there lately.