California 11th November, Monterey and the whales

We left Point Lobos and drove into Monterey, finding a car park near the harbour. The 'front' at Monterey had the usual sea food shacks and tourist frippery as well as the occasional sleepy sea lion.

We found the berth where our boat was due to depart for the wale watching trip and had our lunch to the delight of a lame sea gull. The boat came with it's own salty sea dog!.

We boarded and got a place at the rear of the boat with good visibility although the weather was still cloudy and overcast, I put on my 200mm f/2.8 lens with the 1.4 converter giving me a total of 340mm reach. Mairi had a kit 28-300mm Sigma lens on her smaller sensor camera so could do a lot better than me. I also noticed that her smaller lens was a lot less liable to shake on the moving boat. The trials of using more professional equipment.

On the way out of the harbour we passed a sea otter with a baby on her back and numerous sea lions sitting wherever they could find a space.

Once out on the high seas we passed a much larger boat that had gone out earlier and was close by a number of feeding humpback whales. Our excitement grew.

We had a commentary from oue boat and we discovered that the sea lions spent their time literally hanging around in clumps in the water. Suddenly they would all move as a bundle of crill came through and they then would porpoise through the sea, alerting the whales who would come in after and mop up.

Here is the sort of sequence that would take place.

The humpbacks are baleen feeders and at one point, staring down into the deep we could see the crill shining in the water. Monterey bay is a protected marine site and the number of whales visiting has increased over the last few years. As winter comes on the humpback are replaced by grey whales, both groups travelling south to breed. It was reckoned that we had seen around 20 individual whales in the course of the afternoon. 

The pelicans joined in the feeding frenzy as well.

Unfortunately the whales were more intent on feeding than doing any acrobatics, so we mainly saw only their backs and tails and on a couple of occasions their heads came into view.

Later in the afternoon the sun shone weakly through the cloud lending a lovely light to the water.

We had gone a long way out into the bay and it was time to return to harbour. Magically, on the way back we were joined by a large group of long beak common dolphins who enjoyed themselves swimming under the boat and generally showing off. Mairi took a short film of them on my phone which I shall include.

By the time we got into harbour the lights were coming on, so we headed straight for our campsite in Capitola, north of Monterey but still on the bay. Monterey had a nice vibe and there was a lot more we could have done there, including Monarch Grove where the migrating Monarch butterflies congregate in the winter months. But now we were on a bit of a timetable to get up to San Francisco and Point Reys so we felt compelled to go in the opposite direction to the wildlife.