Hello whale lovers! We have had some fantastic voyages in the last two weeks filled with MORE exciting feeding frenzies and very happy whale watch guests! In past blogs, we have talked about these ‘frenzies’ where many top predators, like birds, dolphins, sea lions, and whales all congregate together when there is a lot of food in the water. Lately, we have been seeing so much krill at the surface! This krill will congregate in masses and can be seen as large brown patches at the surface. We were lucky enough to be right in the middle of these feedings and have some special shots where a single frame can show how much life can be in one small spot at any given time! We get asked quite often if whales (baleen whales) and dolphins (toothed whales) ever interact. These photos will show you that if there is food, they can be right next to each other! Even though they are not competing for food, the humpback whales are feeding on the krill, while the dolphins are feeding on the predatory fish that are eating the krill. In these situations, these animals will jump, leap, dive and lunge toward the food source in close proximity to each other. The migrating terns were also picking the krill from the surface of the water and some sea lions were sighted around the frenzy as well!
Among the frenzies we have had so many whale sightings; many cow-calf pairs of gray whales, humpbacks, minkes, fins, and more blue whales have been seen. I hope this means that the blues are slowly headed our way!
Another question we have commonly asked is if we ever see sharks during our whale watches. Some of the more interesting sightings lately included the sighting of 10 foot long great white shark! This shark made an appearance on Mother’s Day and really gave the guests more than they thought they would see on a whale watch! The shark was seen slowly moving next to the boat and not many people were able to get photos because of the excitement that ensued during the moments when the shark was at the surface. We will see great white sharks when the weather warms up and it is very typical since southern California is their natural habitat. The females will also pup along the coast, including areas around Santa Monica. We have seen other species of sharks during our trips in the past like threshers, hammerheads, blue and basking sharks!
We have so much fun showing our guests the life that thrives off of our coast and would like to see you soon for a whale watching adventure! Thanks for reading!
