# Fri Whale Watch Trip



## Laura (Jun 1, 2011)

http://www.sanctuarycruises.com/

The whales are back in Monterey Bay.. and if the weather holds... I will be going out there Fri.. 
take a look at the website and see what they have been seeing the past few weeks! 
I went in Jan.. and didnt see much.. wrong time of year.. just the greys.. and the swells.. wow... quite the ride!
Hoping for calmer seas and Lots of whales!!


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## SnakeyeZ (Jun 1, 2011)

Wow good luck. I look forward to pictures.

Only whale watching I have done is in Grade 9 we went to Churchill and seen Beluga's.


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## DeanS (Jun 1, 2011)

Yeah! A few years back...a friend of mine was on a watch when a pod of orcas went after two cows and their calves...they got separated one calf but the cows apparently worked in unison to free it...no blood! Score one for the CGW!


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## GeoTerraTestudo (Jun 1, 2011)

Whale watching is a sublime experience. My fiance and I went whale-watching in Costa Rica just this past winter, and were lucky enough to see bull humpbacks vying for breeding rights with a cow. They battled it out for hours. It was simply awesome. I have heard similarly wonderful stories from friends who have also seen humpbacks in New England, as well gray whales and killer whales off the Pacific Coast. I highly recommend it to anyone.


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## DeanS (Jun 1, 2011)

On a related note, I interviewed for Disney's Animal Kingdom 14 years ago. I had to go to San Francisco for the interview. I was invited by another friend of mine who was doing research off the coast...the Farallons to be precise...on great whites. Turns out the day before I got there, they witnessed an orca taking out a 15-18 foot shark. The largest bull will breach and land full-force on top of the shark pulverizing it on contact (all cartilage y'know). As they kill grey whales for their tongue...the kill great whites for the liver...about 500 pounds worth at that size. They only get one shot at it because after that all the remaining sharks in the area will scram...and not return for days and sometimes weeks. It's thought they can tell when one of their own dies and they can sense death. Apparently they don't leave the area...just dive straight to the bottom...up to a half mile down.


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## hali (Jun 1, 2011)

owwww lucky you - i am soooo envious


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## onarock (Jun 1, 2011)

We love to whale watch here. They start coming to Hawaii in Nov. and stay untill Mar./April. We can see them breaching from our house. I was racing my 1man canoe from Kahakuloa to Lahaina and about half way throught the race a Humpback came up for a breath about 10 feet from me. When it blew, I almost blew... if you know what I mean . They are really loud and all I was thinking is dont hit my canoe... dont hit my canoe (racing 1man outrigger canoes are fragile, usually around 20 feet long and only weigh 20lbs made of carbon fiber). They stay pretty close to shore in the waters between Maui, Lanai, Kahoolawe and Molokai.


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## ALDABRAMAN (Jun 1, 2011)

Great!


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## ChiKat (Jun 1, 2011)

I went on a whale watch years ago in Maui. We didn't get to see much because of the time of year, but even seeing a tail way off in the distance was the coolest thing!!


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## Jacqui (Jun 1, 2011)

I am sooooo very envious of you! It's one of the things at the top of my list to do. Have come lose twice, but never quite worked out to go. Have a blast!


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## Candy (Jun 1, 2011)

Now this is awesome. Please Laura post pictures when you get back.  I love all of the stories of the people who have been whale watching.  Now this is so much more exciting then seeing the....you know where.


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## dmarcus (Jun 1, 2011)

Looks like that will be a lot of fun...


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## CtTortoiseMom (Jun 1, 2011)

I hope you have the best time! Fingers crossed that you have perfect weather!


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## Kalina (Jun 2, 2011)

Hope you have a fantastic time, sounds like it will be awesome... Please post pics... I wish I was going ;-)


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## terryo (Jun 2, 2011)

Now THAT is the right way to educate your children. Amazing.


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## Laura (Jun 3, 2011)

well, it was a slow whale day.. clear, not stormy,, swells.. Im still rocking...but we saw only 3 whales.. humpbacks. 
In the harbor we saw otters, seals, sea lions and lots of birds.. 
we saw 2 black footed albatros.. endangered.. 
go to facebook to see if you can see pic..
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...ed#!/profile.php?id=1020552723&closeTheater=1


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## onarock (Jun 3, 2011)

At least you got to see 3. More than many will see in their entire life.


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## RV's mom (Jun 4, 2011)

we were in new england some years back and took a whale watching boat... amazing. in the distance a big one breached - I have fuzzy telephoto shot, and of others tails and they sound..... what a wonderful memory. I hope to go whale watching again. sooner the better...........

teri


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## Kalina (Jun 7, 2011)

Wasn't able to view your pics on the link... Humpbacks? That's awesome, I've never seen one before in the flesh... I'm jealous!! I'm hoping to go on one in the future, would love to go to WA state and watch the orca pods, also they have other whales there too.


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## Laura (Jun 7, 2011)

yes, Humpbacks. I want to do the Sanjuan Islands too..
but there have been Orcas in the bay recently, and blues.. so we were hoping for lots more.. 
when i get a chance.. I'll try to do tinypic to load them here.. 
www.sanctuarycruises.com is the group we went with. 


5/2011: By Dorris Welch/Sanctuary Cruises' Marine Biologist


Orcas, Humpbacks, Blue Whales, Risso's Dolphins, Pacific White-sided Dolphins, Northern Right-Whale Dolphins and Black-footed Albatross
Today was one for the record books! The morning started out with excellent marine conditions. And it was a good thing because we had to motor for almost two hours. Then it happened. We saw our first couple of spouts about 1/2 mile to the west of our position. As we were moving toward the spouts, two humpbacks suddenly appeared about 25 yards off the left of the boat. We immediately cut the throttle, put the boat in neutral and idled while the pair surfaced a couple of times. 

While the passengers on boat were focused on the two humpbacks to the left of the boat, Captain Mike yelled out that there were two orcas about 25 yards off the right side of the boat! Then three more orcas appeared in the same area. Attention was suddenly focused on the orcas. And two more appeared. One of them was calf. So now we were sitting there with two humpbacks to the left, seven orcas to the right and at least two whale spouts about 1/2 mile in front of us! The orcas then turned and came toward us and crossed our bow giving everyone excellent looks. 

The orcas lingered in our area for about five minutes and then started to move out SW of our position at about 4-5 kts. We slowly put the boat into gear and started to move in their direction when a passenger called out two more spouts about a mile behind us! After a while it was clear that the orcas were moving out so we stopped heading in the orca's direction and decided to check out the spouts that were behind us toward land. After about 10-15 minutes of looking and we didn't see anything, a passenger called out another whale spout about 1/2 mile behind us out toward the horizon. So we turned the boat around to have a look. 

I kept looking back at the previous sighting and observed two blue whales surface about 25 yards behind the boat. At this point it was about 1:30 P.M. and we were still almost two hours from Moss Landing. The wind was starting to kick up so we decided to start making our way back to port via a wide arc to the middle of Bay. After about 20 minutes we noticed a couple more spouts about one mile out so we started heading in that direction when we came upon a huge, multi-species pod of Risso's Dolphins, Pacific White-sided Dolphins and Northern Right-whale dolphins scattered over an area of about one-mile! After enjoying this spectacle for about 15-minutes the wind really kicked up and it was time to go. 

We finally pulled back into the dock 5.5 hours after we left. That's about as long as we have stayed out for a trip. It's hard to go in when there is so much to see! This year is shaping up to be a great year for observing marine mammals in The Monterey Bay. 




6/4/2011: By Dorris Welch/Sanctuary Cruises' Marine Biologist


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## Candy (Jun 7, 2011)

Were you able to load your pictures to Tiny pics? I haven't been able to get to them to view them on your Facebook and Kalina was also asking to see them.


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## Laura (Jun 7, 2011)

tail and blow




lots of harbor seals


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