2018 04-26 Monterey Bay
-
We had a fabulous 9¾ hour whale watch tour with Nancy Black, Monterey Bay Whale Watch, on board the Sea Wolf II. We departed Monterey Harbor just after 8am and returned about 545pm. The day started out with a marine layer that had a few sucker holes of sun. As the day progressed, the sun took over and the low stratus dissipated. Seas were almost glassy in the early morning, got a little bit choppy in the afternoon, and there was a 3-4 foot swell that did not bother anyone.
Inside the harbor a mother otter and her very small pup rolled around and leisurely swam across our bow. (We’d see the same pair as we re-entered the harbor in the afternoon). Other otters were also in the area. A slow pass by the breakwater gave photo opps for California sea lions (over 1,000 ?), and some nesting Brandt’s cormorants with young chicks in the nest. Hundreds of additional cormorants sat on the rocks of the breakwater, often right next to sea lions.
We left the harbor heading southwest with hopes of seeing some of the 45 Orca’s that were recorded the day before (albeit not in the same space or at the same time), and were last spotted heading towards Big Sur. Just outside the harbor, the entire squid fishing fleet was congregated and actively hauling their purse seines, even this late in the morning. Boats were so close to each other I wondered two things: how do the squid stand a chance? and, how do the fishermen avoid wrapping up each other’s gear? By the way, two days prior, Monterey Bay Whale Watch boats used their drone to photograph Risso’s dolphins entangled in these squid nets as fishermen tried to free them.
Considerable time was spent watching a huge, spread-out, pod of Pacific white-sided dolphins (nicknamed “Lags” after their scientific name Lagenorhynchus obliquidens). They rode the bow, side and stern waves. There were some instances of jumping across our wake, and, most interesting, there was one (possibly two) Pacific right-whale dolphin mixed in with the Lags. One of them rode the bow with the Lags, and I made an effort to try and photograph it, challenged by the high mobility and dark body coloration. Nevertheless, it was great to see this species which I photographed years ago in the Santa Barbara Channel!
Speaking of Lags, at least one of the thousand or so we watched had a relatively rare color variation which includes a white stripe (“eyebrow”) arching above the eyeball. This variation from the normal color pattern was reported in 1965 by Robert L. Brownell, Jr. Hence, Nancy, Alisa and others often call these color variants “Brownell’s.” (Other non-Brownell color variants among Lags include all black, all white, and individuals with orange or tan where the white/gray colors are normally found). I took hundreds of photos of bow-riding Lags and hope I got lucky.
We watched 5 members of the CA-51 Orca pod, aka “the friendly pod,” which included one large male, CA-50B. Nancy and Alisa co-author the Orca identification catalogue for Bigg’s Orcas (formerly known as transient Orcas) for our region. They pointed out that CA-50B’s mother had died, and this CA-51 group may be adopting him. The group also included a small Orca that rolled around, swam upside-down, and slapped its tail quite a bit at the start of our encounter. After an hour or so, the pod managed to give us the slip, and although Nancy searched for quite a while, they were never re-sighted. Plenty of great photos were taken and it was fun to be with them for a while.
Several black-footed albatross were around, especially during our morning time with the Orca’s. Perhaps they were hoping for a kill and the tasty scraps that would bring. What magnificent birds they are as they soar across the waves. Many flew or landed right next to the boat and made for wonderful photographic opps. Other common sea birds today were thousands of sooty shearwaters, lots of phalaropes, a few common murres, cormorants, gulls and only one or two individual brown pelicans. Also photographed in flight was a drone used to for aerial photography of the whales by the boat.
A half-dozen or so humpback whales were watched including one cow-calf pair. Several nice tail flukes were seen, but, alas, no other wild humpie behaviors.
-
Read MoreWe had a fabulous 9¾ hour whale watch tour with Nancy Black, Monterey Bay Whale Watch, on board the Sea Wolf II. We departed Monterey Harbor just after 8am and returned about 545pm. The day started out with a marine layer that had a few sucker holes of sun. As the day progressed, the sun took over and the low stratus dissipated. Seas were almost glassy in the early morning, got a little bit choppy in the afternoon, and there was a 3-4 foot swell that did not bother anyone.
Inside the harbor a mother otter and her very small pup rolled around and leisurely swam across our bow. (We’d see the same pair as we re-entered the harbor in the afternoon). Other otters were also in the area. A slow pass by the breakwater gave photo opps for California sea lions (over 1,000 ?), and some nesting Brandt’s cormorants with young chicks in the nest. Hundreds of additional cormorants sat on the rocks of the breakwater, often right next to sea lions.
We left the harbor heading southwest with hopes of seeing some of the 45 Orca’s that were recorded the day before (albeit not in the same space or at the same time), and were last spotted heading towards Big Sur. Just outside the harbor, the entire squid fishing fleet was congregated and actively hauling their purse seines, even this late in the morning. Boats were so close to each other I wondered two things: how do the squid stand a chance? and, how do the fishermen avoid wrapping up each other’s gear? By the way, two days prior, Monterey Bay Whale Watch boats used their drone to photograph Risso’s dolphins entangled in these squid nets as fishermen tried to free them.
Considerable time was spent watching a huge, spread-out, pod of Pacific white-sided dolphins (nicknamed “Lags” after their scientific name Lagenorhynchus obliquidens). They rode the bow, side and stern waves. There were some instances of jumping across our wake, and, most interesting, there was one (possibly two) Pacific right-whale dolphin mixed in with the Lags. One of them rode the bow with the Lags, and I made an effort to try and photograph it, challenged by the high mobility and dark body coloration. Nevertheless, it was great to see this species which I photographed years ago in the Santa Barbara Channel!
Speaking of Lags, at least one of the thousand or so we watched had a relatively rare color variation which includes a white stripe (“eyebrow”) arching above the eyeball. This variation from the normal color pattern was reported in 1965 by Robert L. Brownell, Jr. Hence, Nancy, Alisa and others often call these color variants “Brownell’s.” (Other non-Brownell color variants among Lags include all black, all white, and individuals with orange or tan where the white/gray colors are normally found). I took hundreds of photos of bow-riding Lags and hope I got lucky.
We watched 5 members of the CA-51 Orca pod, aka “the friendly pod,” which included one large male, CA-50B. Nancy and Alisa co-author the Orca identification catalogue for Bigg’s Orcas (formerly known as transient Orcas) for our region. They pointed out that CA-50B’s mother had died, and this CA-51 group may be adopting him. The group also included a small Orca that rolled around, swam upside-down, and slapped its tail quite a bit at the start of our encounter. After an hour or so, the pod managed to give us the slip, and although Nancy searched for quite a while, they were never re-sighted. Plenty of great photos were taken and it was fun to be with them for a while.
Several black-footed albatross were around, especially during our morning time with the Orca’s. Perhaps they were hoping for a kill and the tasty scraps that would bring. What magnificent birds they are as they soar across the waves. Many flew or landed right next to the boat and made for wonderful photographic opps. Other common sea birds today were thousands of sooty shearwaters, lots of phalaropes, a few common murres, cormorants, gulls and only one or two individual brown pelicans. Also photographed in flight was a drone used to for aerial photography of the whales by the boat.
A half-dozen or so humpback whales were watched including one cow-calf pair. Several nice tail flukes were seen, but, alas, no other wild humpie behaviors.
-
Pacific white-sided dolphins
Lagenorhynchus obliquidens riding bow of vessel Blackfin 2018 04-26 Monterey--0008
LagenorhynchusobliquidensridingbowvesselBlackfin2018Monterey0008
Pacific white-sided dolphin
Lagenorhynchus obliquidens bow riding 2018 04-26 Monterey-b-0297
Pacific white-sided dolphin
Lagenorhynchus obliquidens 2018 04-26 Monterey-d-0035
Pacific white-sided dolphins
Lagenorhynchus obliquidens 2018 04-26 Monterey-d-0036
Pacific white-sided dolphin - black & white rendering
Lagenorhynchus obliquidens B&W 2018 04-26 Monterey-d-0064
Pacific white-sided dolphin
Lagenorhynchus obliquidens bow riding 2018 04-26 Monterey-b-0117
