A surface lunge feeding humpback whale today.
First coastal trip of the season is off the charts.
As is our custom during this season of the year, we got off the docks with 3 trips today: 9am, 12 noon and 3pm. The morning trip was a tad bit sunnier, but all three trips enjoyed wonderful sea conditions with great visibility both both above and below the surface. We closely watched 5 gray whales today, all heading south. One of them breached for us. To add to the large cetacean observations we also enjoyed the company of 5 humpback whales. There were several breaches, one giant tail slap right off the bow, and surface lunge feeding on anchovy schools all day long. Of course the common dolphins (at least 2,500 total for the day) and scads of California sea lions were in the area sharing the many large anchovy schools. Again the water was very clear and blue, so watching the rivers of anchovies from the boat as they were fleeing from predators was spectacular. I hope nobody says that about me some day! Hah! Another humpback was very friendly and approached the boat several times within a few dozen yards. Everyone was feeding on the anchovies except, of course, the gray whales. As a side note, there were numerous other spouts in the vicinity that we just did not have time to visit.
I’ll post up the photos from today’s adventure sometime during the first half of the week. We run 3 trips a day now until the beginning of May.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.