Fickle Fog

The weather was unusually warm and the skies uninterrupted blue as we set off under the Golden Gate Bridge on last Saturday’s whale watching trip. Even the sea between the bridge and Point Bonita known as the “Potato Patch” was calm (the Potato Patch is a shallow area prone to rough seas, supposedly named for the tossed and floating potatoes from overloaded boats delivering produce to Gold Rush era crowds.)

Maybe half-way on the 27 mile trip to the Farallon Islands things began to change, there were swells instead of total calm, and toward the west a canopy of low hanging clouds seemed out of place but undeniable. Jackets started to be pulled out of backpacks, zippers started to be zipped. Doggone it, summer fog had arrived ahead of schedule.

According to Weather Of The San Francisco Bay Region by Harold Gilliam, a terrific book unlocking the mysteries of the Bay Area's micro climates, the type of fog we witnessed was neither early nor unusual. “Wind from the northwest, skimming thousands of miles of ocean, absorbs great quantities of moisture that has evaporated from the surface.”

“The moisture is suspended in the air...(it) comes into contact with the cold, upwelled waters and is cooled off, causing vapor to condense into visible droplets. The result is the great fog bank that envelops most of the California coast intermittently during the late spring and summer.”

Lessons learned: 1. dress in layers for your whale watching trip, 2. tell your friends that you meant your photos to have this edgy, atmospheric effect, and 3. be prepared for the unexpected - think on your feet (sorry, that photo needed a caption).



Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.

Gray Whale Seen Inside The Gate

Here at SF Bay Whale Watching we encourage you to "Get Outside The Gate" - travel with us beyond the Golden Gate for a chance to see whales and other marine mammals. Last Thursday the tables turned and a Gray Whale decided to venture inside the Gate, most likely in search of an easy meal. (See SFGate story from April 25, 2008)

When I read about the Gray Whale seen under the Golden Gate Bridge and just beyond Crissy Field last Thursday I remembered that this happened last year too. See Sea Worthy Blog entry dated March 11, 2007 where a reader reports seeing a whale near Crissy Field on May 6, 2007. That earlier blog has information about the Grays' shallow water feeding habits, and in retrospect makes that visit inside the Gate logical.


As Gray Whales migrate towards their feeding grounds at the Bering Sea at this time of year we often hear about sightings near Sausalito, Tiburon or other spots in the Bay. Sometimes we're asked what kind of whale they're seeing.

The easiest way to differentiate a Gray from a Humpback for the casual observer would be to look for a dorsal fin - you won't find one on a Gray. So when the whale dives, and its' back arches you'll see something more like "knuckles" along its backbone. Another ID give-a-way are the whitish spots (... the Gray's coloration reminds me of a linoleum pattern.)

It is assumed that the Gray that was seen inside the Gate last week had a nice meal, took in the sights and safely resumed his or her 5,000 mile migration north. Such was not the harmless idyll for another Gray Whale that wandered about 12 miles from the mouth of the Eel River, off California's north coast.

Students and a professor from Humboldt State University freed the Gray that was snarled in and trailing about 50 feet of crab-pot lines and several marker buoys. (See SFGate whale rescue story from April 27, 2008, and Sea Worthy Blog entry on whale rescue techniques dated December 16, 2006.)

Chances are still much better that you'll see a whale (and without cargo) outside the Gate.

Photos by Ed Estes. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

Alcatraz Island - Home of the West Coast's First Working Lighthouse

Alcatraz = lighthouses? Not exactly the association that first comes to mind, is it? Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, or maybe Robert Stroud, The Birdman of Alcatraz, sure, but who even notices that old lighthouse? In fact, the original lighthouse on Alcatraz Island was the first of eight lighthouses authorized by the US Congress as a response to Gold Rush era maritime traffic. What a relief it must have been on June 1, 1854 when the Alcatraz Island Fresnel lens first beamed its light toward the Golden Gate.

You’ll get a good look at Alcatraz Island on your way out of San Francisco Bay at the start of your whale watching trip. Generally, there’s not much boat traffic in the Bay at that hour so maybe it’ll be easier to recall Alcatraz’s early history without the distractions of modern marine and urban bustle. The 84 foot tall light tower you see today was a 1909 replacement for the first light house after it was both damaged in the 1906 earthquake and rendered ineffective by the encroaching new military prison being built alongside.

The original lighthouse sat centered atop a two story keepers’ cottage. Imagine a tower sitting on the roof of one of the old keepers’ cottages on South Farallon Island and you get the picture. In fact, all of the original eight authorized lighthouses began with the same general blueprint. (On the Farallones, the keepers’ cottages sit alone while the disembodied light tower sits perched atop the highest cliff.)

The original light tower itself was 50 feet tall and often insufficient to penetrate the Bay’s thick fog so two bell fog signals were also built, one each on the North and South sides of the island. Why giant 4,000-pound fog bells were used instead of a fog horn system is unclear. The bells were suspended from the porches of small outbuildings. No “turn the music down or you’ll ruin your hearing” option for that generation of lighthouse keepers’ children - imagine the tinnitus!


Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.

Special Farallon Island Birdwatching Trip Scheduled for Wed. April 2, 2008

To celebrate and highlight the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco's Wednesday, April 2nd, 8pm Forward 50 Speaker Series presentation: "Jonathan Rosen on Birdwatching", SF Bay Whale Watching has scheduled a special birdwatching trip to the Farallon Islands from 10:30am to 4pm on Wednesday, April 2, 2008.

According to the JCCSF's press release an estimated 46 million Americans are birdwatchers. In the JCCSF lecture series on Wednesday evening, New Yorker and New York Times contributor Jonathan Rosen "brings an engaging perspective to this popular pastime, born out of the tangled history of industrialization and nature longing. For many species of birds, this may be our last chance to look towards the sky to watch them!"


The evening presentation is open to the public as is this special mid-week opportunity to travel to the Farallon Islands and visit the largest seabird colony in the Continental US. Approximately 250,000 seabirds, during peak breeding and migrating periods, populate the Islands and surrounding waters of the Farallones. Come join us on Wednesday, April 2 for an opportunity to see the Farallones during their "green" phase, when the normally stark rocks are covered with spring growth, and thousands of Common Murres and other birds crowd in for April egg laying.


The egg laying will go on regardless, but please remember to call SF Bay Whale Watching the night before the trip at (415) 331-6267 to ensure that weather conditions do not disrupt the best laid plans!




SF Bay Whale Watching's special April 2, 10:30am Farallon Island birdwatching trip cost: $80.00. Order your tickets online at sfbaywhalewatching.com or call (415)331-6267.

Tickets for the April 2, 8:00pm JCCSF Forward 50 Speaker Series presentation "Jonathan Rosen on Birdwatching" cost: $8.00 for Members and $10.00 for the public. Order online at www.jccsf.org, or call (415) 292-1200.

(by the way: no extra charge if we should spot some whales on the way out to the birds...!)

Photos by Ed Estes. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

Vessel Watch Project - Seaflow and SFBay Whale Watching Offer Special Trips

Join SF Bay Whale Watching and Seaflow for the Vessel Watch Project - special whale watching trips on May 4, June 15, July 12, and August 3. Come listen to the underwater world of sound, learn about ocean noise pollution and the impact large vessel traffic has on The Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary.


Seaflow is a non-profit organization that provides public education and advocacy outreach to protect whales, dolphins, fish and all marine life from high intensity active sonars and other sources of human generated ocean noise pollution. Members of Seaflow will be coming aboard SF Bay Whale Watching trips to view whales, monitor the acoustic environment with hydrophones, and monitor maritime traffic in the shipping lanes.


We are delighted to have them aboard and hope that our other passengers take the opportunity to engage Seaflow members in conversation. There is much to learn about the effect of noise pollution on marine life and public awareness is vital in order to implement necessary protections. Participants in the Seaflow Vessel Watch Project will record their visual and acoustic observations, the speed of observed cargo vessels, and issue a press release and public notice documenting their findings on www.seaflow.org.


Our oceans are now filled with many human-generated, intensely loud and disturbing sounds. Major sources of human-generated intense underwater noises are seismic airguns, used to prospect for offshore oil, and military sonar. Low frequency active sonar is loud enough to be heard over a distance of 1000 miles. According to the Navy’s own test results, high intensity active sonars can have harmful effects on humans who swim or dive in nearby waters.


A growing body of scientific research confirms that the intense sounds produced by active sonars can inflict a range of adverse effects on marine mammals. These effects include death and serious injury caused by lung hemorrhage or tissue trauma, strandings and beachings, temporary and permanent hearing loss, disruption of feeding, breeding, nursing, communication and sensing, and other behaviors vital to survival.


For those passengers who come aboard an SF Bay Whale Watching trip on May 4, June 15, July 12 or August 3 it will be a special chance to listen to the underwater sounds of vessels and the sounds that whales may make. And it may be further proof that the raucous barking of sea lions that you may hear from ashore the Farallon Islands, also goes on below the water - yes, sea lions bark underwater! (see blog entry dated Sept. 21, 2006)

Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.

Sea Lions - (with a bark, not a roar)

Will you just look at that face?! In case you think (like I do) that the face of a Steller Sea Lion (also known as a Northern Sea Lion) rivals the sweetest domestic pooch’s face, remember - this fellow is no household pet. When he’s fully grown he’ll weigh in at an un-beagle-like 2,400 pounds and measure almost 8 feet in length.

When our SF Bay Whale Watching boat travels by the buoy where Steller and California Sea Lions haul out we always slow down for the show. Several sea lions are often seen swimming around the buoy waiting for the swells to tip the buoy so that they can leap aboard.



It doesn’t seem to matter if there is actually any available room aboard when they attempt that leap - they just dislodge whoever is already there.


Here’s something you’ve got to hear as well as see - a “raft” of sea lions.
Scores of mixed species just hanging out, miles from shore, barking, nosing each other, diving, swimming barely under the surface, playing, moving in unison, disappearing underwater then reappearing as a group several yards away, coming right up to the boat as if they are going to take your picture, or suddenly turning en mass and heading off in the opposite direction as if they are late for an appointment. Sea lion rafting is one of my favorite spectator sports.


At SF Bay Whale Watching we know that you are eager to see the Farallon Islands. Probably you associate them with the lore of the “Devil’s Teeth” myths and White Sharks, Killer Whales, perhaps the Gold Rush era “Egg Wars”. Few San Franciscans have seen the islands so naturally you are curious. Here’s another reason you should be excited to see the Farallones - the sea lions will be perched high, really high, up along the ridges and peaks of the islands - its a grand sight.


You ask yourself how those big tubs (with the cute faces) lug themselves all the way up those craggy slopes - how?! The why is obvious - remember you are looking at the infamous "Devil’s Teeth" - think White Sharks, Killer Whales...

Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.

Mating Season (for Gray Whales, that is)

Well, that got your attention. The Audubon Guide to Marine Mammals of the World states that the California stock of Gray Whales migrates from its summer feeding grounds in the Bering Sea to its winter mating and calving areas off the coast of Baja California between November and March. So this is prime time to catch sight of the Grays on their amorous way south.


Gray Whales are notoriously curious - the old whalers invented the term “spyhopping” to describe the whales' practice of poking their heads out of the water for a look around. Spyhopping is a funny thing to observe because it seems so deliberate, like a “periscope up” command, not the joyous abandon of a full breach (leap).


I’ve heard lots of anecdotes especially about the curiosity that baby Gray Whales have shown regarding boaters - swimming alongside whale watching boats, allowing themselves to be petted even. It’s hard to imagine that whalers actually referred to Grays as “devil fish” because of their ferocity (once again, according to Audubon). (I wish I had a photo of one of those curious baby Grays but I don't so I offer you a photo Ed took of some cute and very curious Harbor Seals hauled out near Point Bonita Light House that we saw on the way to the Grays.)



Female Gray Whales will have a baby every 2 to 3 years, carrying the fetus for 12 to 13 months. Once the Grays get to Baja competitive groups of males will form, all seeking the attention of a single female. A similar phenomenon is described regarding the mating of Humpback Whales in the just released February, 2008 issue of Smithsonian Magazine (www.smithsonian.com).


It might be winter, but the whales are thinking spring break, so come aboard an SFBay Whale Watching trip and wish a Gray Whale safe passage to Baja (and come see the Farallon Islands in winter - they are especially beautiful).

Photos by Ed Estes and Suphanni Jacques. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

The Golden Gate Bridge - 70 mph Winds: Built to Take It

The winds hit 70 miles per hour across the Golden Gate Bridge on Friday, January 4, 2008. Even so, Golden Gate Transit reminded people on its website that the Bridge has only been closed three times in 70 years due to high winds. Still, buses and trucks were banned for a period. Hard to imagine, but a blown over rig was feared to be a real possibility.

Needless to say, SFBay Whale Watching sat out the storm. Migrating Gray Whales, resident Harbor Seals, California Sea Lions, and other marine mammals are far better suited to riding wild storm swells than we are. But the weather report is improving - I’m counting on it, I’ll be on board next weekend.

When the storm abates and we head out to the whales in a few days, our boat will pass under the Golden Gate Bridge - and once again I’ll marvel at it’s beauty and resilience. The bridge’s statistics are fairly well known: completed in 1937, 4,200 feet long, 746 foot north and south towers, 260 feet between the roadbed and the water, designed to sway 27 feet from east to west in a high wind or earthquake.

Most of our passengers will photograph the bridge as we pass under it at the start and the end of our trip. Locals treat it like a revered member of the family - people from all over the world seem thrilled to see it up close after so many movie glimpses. But when I next pass underneath our great bridge, I will, as always, reflect on the brave men who built it. Men who built it to withstand 70 mile per hour winds.

Men like construction worker Pete Williamson who was so desperate for a job to feed his family during the depression that he worked in the middle of the evolving span, “walking along those girders with nothing to hold on to, balancing myself on 8-inch I-beams with only net and water underneath. I learned quick that when the wind was blowing, which was all the time out there, you had to carry lumber on the side away from it. If you didn’t, it could blow you right into the drink.”

Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.

Point Bonita Lighthouse - Helping to Provide Safe Passage for 152 Years

The whales we hope to spot on an SFBay Whale Watching trip are likely to be seen several miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, on the way to the Farallon Islands. So what is there to see enroute? Aside from the world’s most famous bridge, that is? How about the Point Bonita Lighthouse, whose beacon has been guiding mariners into the Bay for 152 years.

With hundreds of ships entering the bay in the early years of the Gold Rush and by one historical account 23 ship wrecks between 1850 and 1854, Congress recognized the need for navigational assistance and authorized funds for several Bay area lighthouses.

The original 1855 Point Bonita Lighthouse was built higher up from the current location, on a cliff jutting out from the southernmost tip of Marin County, near the entrance to the Golden Gate.

But there was a problem with the original Point Bonita lighthouse that nobody foresaw. Engineers had sited it high upon the cliff, just as they had been accustomed to doing so on the East Coast.

Trouble is, the Golden Gate area experiences a natural weather phenomenon known as “high fog” which meant that the light projected out at exactly the same level as the thick fog and simply could not penetrate it (for both a scientific and elegantly written discussion of this and the rest of the San Francisco area’s crazy micro-climates, I wholeheartedly recommend Weather of the San Francisco Bay Region by Harold Gilliam).

In order to function, the lighthouse had to be moved closer to sea level. The “new” and currently operating lighthouse opened in 1877.

The Point Bonita Lighthouse is the only American lighthouse reached by a suspension bridge. This picturesque bridge, the location of the lighthouse at the end of long rocky spine, the Golden Gate Bridge looming over its shoulder, and the spectacular view from the boat, makes the Point Bonita Lighthouse an extraordinary aspect of your SFBay Whale Watching excursion.

Photos by Ed Estes and Kathleen Jacques. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

Gift Certificates for SFBay Whale Watching Trips - Order Now

Give some memories! We have had the pleasure of hosting birthday party goers, honeymooners, family and school reunion groups, and lots of other people who have come aboard our whale watching boat thanks to a gift certificate and somebody's thoughtfulness.

Here at SFBay Whale Watching we think that spending time with whales is a privilege. We delight in the oohs and aahs, the exclamations of excitement we hear when a whale unexpectedly pierces the ocean surface with a geyser of exhaled air, followed by an upward thrust of dorsal-finned backside and then unfurled flukes bigger than a roadside billboard raised high and sunk slow beneath the sea like a dream you don't forget...

As one of our passengers wrote the day after his trip at sea:

"4 seals a swimming...(synchronized)
25 dolphins a playing
12 whales a whalin...
And a puffin on a calm sea..."

"Thanks for a great day..." (by Mark Burnett)


SFBay Whale Watching Natural History Expeditions Gift Certificates make great gifts! Available at 415.331.6267 or on our website. www.sfbaywhalewatching.com

Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.

Humpbacks Heading South; 100's of Dolphins Gather to Feed

Doreen Moser Gurrola, Naturalist aboard the November 17th trip filed the following report - hundreds of dolphins surrounding the boat, over a dozen Humpback Whales feeding together in a group - throw in a couple of albatrosses with their 6 foot wing spans just for a bit more drama - I'd say it was quite a trip:


"Cetaceans:
~5 Harbor Porpoise near Pt. Bonita
100’s Pacific White-sided Dolphins and 10 Northern Right- whale Dolphins (feeding with 2nd group of Humpback Whales)"


"15-20 Humpback Whales: 1st group (west of South East Farallon Island (“SEFI”), lat. 37.36’08.6”, long. 123.02’35.2”) 2 adult humpbacks slow surfacing, 2nd group (north of SEFI, lat. 37.39’50.4”, long. 123.06’22.5”) in 2,000’ water depth, large feeding group (including sea birds, CSLs, and dolphins), 12+ humpbacks feeding at the surface, lunge feeding, surface rolls, and trumpet blows."


"Pinnipeds: California Sea Lions, Steller Sea Lions (at SEFI), Northern Fur Seals (at SEFI), Harbor Seals, and Elephant Seals (at SEFI)

Fish: mola mola, and 4+blue sharks

Seabirds: Pacific loon, eared grebe, western grebe, black footed albatross (2 with 1st group of humpbacks), northern fulmar, sooty shearwater, storm petrel species, brown pelican, Brandt’s cormorant, double crested cormorant, surf scoter, black oyster catcher, California gull, western gull, Sabine’s gull, common murre, marbled murrelet (at SEFI, possibly with oil), rhino auklet, peregrine falcon (at SEFI); 19 species total.

~Doreen"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~


By the way - these last two file photos (from a September, 2007 trip) are not Humpback Whales, of course, but Killer Whales. Doreen didn't see Killer Whales on November 17th but they were spotted the week before. Unfortunately nobody managed to get photos or much information on them (residents or transients?) but it's always exciting when the top predators of the sea are in our neighborhood.



Photos and text by Kathleen Jacques.

Whale Watching - Another Look

This is a Pacific White-sided Dolphin, one of a large group that was bow riding alongside our boat on an SFBay Whale Watching trip a few weeks ago. Photographer Ed Estes’ timing was perfect, capturing the playful dolphin in mid-air. Right now Gray Whales are migrating south to their breeding grounds, and we are seeing them on our trips, but I wanted to show you some photos from the Fall season just past that I never got around to fitting in. Because these are some of Ed’s best shots and prove what we’re always telling you, that a whale watching trip is about more than whales.




We often see dolphins on our trips, and the Pacific White-sided Dolphins are truly crowd pleasers for lots of reasons. Their markings seemed etched with india ink, crisp layers and lines of grey and white and black. We've seen mixed groups of these dolphins and Risso’s Dolphins of up to 400. The two species are often seen traveling together. Your best bet to see that might be to book a trip in the late summer when we go beyond the Farallon Islands out past the Continental Shelf, but you never know - we’ve seen the mixed schools near the Farallones too.



Here’s one of my favorite photos of a male Elephant Seal - he’s resting in a cove on Southeast Farallon Island. For some reason mostly Elephant Seals seem to use this particular cove to haul out, I’ve rarely seen sea lions there. But then a male Elephant Seal could outweigh a male California Sea Lion by more than 3,000 pounds. "Cute" isn't a word normally associated with elephant seals but look at that face, oh, come on?!


Try as I might, I could not get a clear photo of a moon jelly (jelly fish) one day back in September when the ocean seemed full of them. Ed managed just fine. Mostly they were a foot or so beneath the water’s surface and unless the sun shone and the chop subsided my camera just wasn't going to focus. It wasn’t just the camera that didn’t “see” the jelly fish - not many people seemed to see them either because they were busy scanning the horizon for whales. Until someone called the jellies to general attention, and then hundreds appeared (where they’d been all along) below the surface of the water.


And this is essentially what our passengers were looking for - the exhale, or “blow” of a whale. If all the whale blows were this height and in this lighting we’d never miss a whale sighting, no whale could ever hide behind a big ocean swell! Even Ed was surprised at this shot, all that horizon gazing paid off.


These two Humpback Whales from last Fall choreographed their dive just in time for this shot. I tried for the shot too but I was in the back of the boat and photographing another group of four. Turning too late for the shot, I heard passengers exclaim: “two whales' flukes at once! that’ll be the shot of a lifetime!”....doggone it... You can see from the widely varying markings why fluke identification works like fingerprint identification.


Finally, I want to show you one of my favorite of Ed’s recent photo’s - a Humpback Whale, vertical, twisting as it goes down, flukes high (indicating the deep dive to come) and all set with the Farallon Islands as the backdrop. Somehow this image seems removed from us, the whale watchers. Only about the whales, and timeless.

Photos by Ed Estes. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

And the Good News is:

The good news, despite the recent oil spill in San Francisco Bay, is that passengers on SF Bay Whale Watching trips have been sighting marine mammals in the Gulf of the Farallones as usual, and in abundance.




As an example of that vitality take a look at these extraordinary shots that photographer Ed Estes took last Sunday of some California Sea Lions leaping clear out of the sea - something we’re far more apt to see during mating season...I’m no marine biologist, but hey, doesn’t it just make sense?


That’s a Blue Whale’s flukes you’re looking at in the photo above. This has been a good season for Blue Whale sightings so far, the counts seem higher than last year although I haven’t seen any official records. It gets to me every time I read the opening line in the Blue Whale chapter of the Audubon Guide to Marine Mammals of the World: “ Blue Whales are the largest animals ever to live in our planet’s history.” Think massive dinosaur, then think bigger...way bigger.



Another superlative for the Blue Whale is their loud voice - the loudest in the animal kingdom. Their low-frequency sounds are capable of traveling hundreds of miles in deep water. Researchers cannot say with certainty if the whales emit these sounds as deliberate communication or to image underwater features such as seamounts for orientation and navigation.



There were Humpback Whales out last Sunday too (see photo above). Good thing because Brent, second from right in this family group portrait, was gathering material for an “in-depth” school report on marine mammals. Family member Theresa Daniel (on the far right) was taking photos - that report’s looking like a sure-thing “A” to me...


Photos by Ed Estes. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

You Never Know What You'll See (or miss)

Blue Whales, Gray Whales, Humpback Whales, and Great White Sharks too, oh my. That’s what SFBay Whale Watching passengers saw over the course of two days last weekend. But I missed the spectacle: missed the 88 foot long Blue Whale, missed the first sighting of a southbound migrating Gray Whale, missed the six playful Humpbacks, missed the two White Sharks feeding on the same sea lion.


Fortunately Francesca Sarda, a PhD student from Barcelona University, took these photos of the Blue Whale seen on last Saturday's trip. Thank you Francesca! As of yesterday Blue Whales have been reported north of the Farallon Islands so book a trip with us and bring your camera.




Before I heard about the bounty seen last weekend I planned on telling you about the unexpected things I actually had recently seen.







Photographer Ed Estes and I always compare notes after a trip on the unusual things that we’ve seen, for instance the sighting of an injured animal like this Humpback Whale. We report injured animals to The Marine Mammal Center in some instances, and we may consult senior Naturalists such as Carol Keiper and Doreen Gurrola in other cases for insight and information.






Ed saw this Harbor Seal with some kind of ring (plastic?) seemingly choking it. Unless the seal can be caught and the debris removed, we'll never know if the ring proved fatal.






Number 95 here has a better story. I called Carol about this California Sea Lion. She told me that the number, placed there with safe haircolor, helps identify the sea lion as part of a study probably being conducted out of Southern California. She assures us that molting will restore the sea lion's pre-95 hair-do.





Look at the rope (?) mark on this Humpback Whale - in front of the dorsal fin. See the depression it made? How tightly it must have once bound the whale. See blog entry dated December 16, 2006 for a story on disentangling whales from marine debris and you'll get a better understanding of the perils marine mammals face every day. This whale is lucky to have gotten free and to have healed so nicely.



It wasn't until I was home going through the day's photos that I realized that one of the many Humpback Whales I'd seen that day had a serious injury, now healed. Was it from a boat strike? Could that whale possibly be one of the famous off-course whales that had spent many days in the Sacramento River Delta last spring? (See blog dated May 20, 2007.) I sent the photos to Carol and Doreen who passed them along to researchers at Cascadia Research in Olympia, Washington. Researchers were familiar with this whale. Not one of the Delta whales, but nevertheless a known survivor of some unknown accident. I'm glad I didn't miss that. Each trip truly is an adventure.


Photos by Ed Estes and Kathleen Jacques. Text by Kathleen Jacques. Photos of Blue Whales by Francesca Sarda.

The Ocean Hitchhiker

I almost titled this blog “Kitty Kat Picks up Hitchhiking Tweety Bird”. But I knew I’d never live it down, even though our fantastic new boat really is named Kitty Kat and even though it’s true that last Sunday an off-course song bird saved its own life by hopping aboard the boat more than 30 miles out to sea to hitch a ride back to land.


We keep telling everyone what a great year it has been, and continues to be, for Humpback Whale sightings, and here we are fussing over a little bird. Read Naturalist Melinda Nakagawa’s account and you’ll see why:



We had a female Red-winged Blackbird fluttering around our boat, about 5-6 miles south of the island. (The island is 27 miles outside the Golden Gate Bridge!) This poor little land bird looked so exhausted as it fluttered back and forth, dipping close to the waves in our wake as it tried to keep up. Skipper Ronnie slowed the boat down to allow our little friend to hop aboard for a ride to the mainland.


Since she is a land bird, her feathers are not waterproof so she cannot land on the water like a gull or a murre, and would surely drown at sea if she didn't make it back to solid ground to rest and eat insects. Our stowaway landed on the roof of the cabin and occasionally fluttered around and landed on the deck around the passengers during the ride home. Fortunately our little friend made it the mainland. The last time we saw her we were about 2-3 miles from the Golden Gate bridge.


Strange as it seems that a bird more likely to be seen at your backyard bird feeder was seen near the Farallones, there is plenty of precedence for such sightings. Visit one of my favorite blogs, PRBO's Los Farallones and check out their October 15, 2006 entry. The resident scientists reported a one day sighting of over a hundred migrating songbirds on or near the Farallones, including a hummingbird, a kingfisher, grosbeaks, a meadowlark, sparrows, warblers, wrens, juncos, red-winged blackbirds, a goldfinch and an owl, among others.


On our SFBay Whale Watching trips we like to point out, as we travel within sight of the PRBO housing on the island (the former 1870's lighthouse keeper's quarters), the two wind sculpted cypress trees alongside the two houses. They are known as the "Farallon Forest", the hardy survivors of many unsuccessful attempts to plant trees on these rocks over the years.


Don't think it's just their grit that inspires admiration; the island's bird biologists find them useful havens for the resting migrant songbirds who, off-course and tired from their detours, can then easily be studied, banded, and released.

Next time I fill that bird feeder I'm going to think twice about the adventures those song birds may have had...

Photos and Text by Kathleen Jacques. (Red-winged Blackbird photo courtesy of Cornell University.)

Killer Whales, Part II

We’re still getting feedback from passengers who were on board September 23, 2007 when we saw Killer Whales just beyond the Farallon Islands. When a couple of the whales came up from underneath our boat to glide momentarily alongside we were enthralled, no wonder we’re still talking about that trip. SFBay Whale Watching photographer Ed Estes and I were both taking pictures that day and usually from different sections of the boat. I couldn’t wait to see what he captured...as usual he got some stunners.



Chances are that the individual Killer Whales that we saw on September 23rd are known to researchers. We now know that they were “transient” Killer Whales. Known pods of transients range widely between California and Alaska . They were not the same Killer Whales that visited our area last winter, those were “resident” whales from the Washington state region. They can be identified by their dorsal fins and the gray “saddle” markings behind the dorsal fins. Using photo-identification researchers have cataloged over 200 individual transient Killer Whales.




I was surprised to learn that transients and resident Killer Whales are genetically distinct and are considered by some scientists to be separate species. They differ in diet; transients prey on marine mammals (sea lions, porpoises, dolphins, even other whales), whereas residents are fish eaters (salmon, tuna, herring).


It was interesting that Doreen Gurrola, our Naturalist, noted the length of the whales’ dives each time because that was a way to establish that these were transients, not residents. It seems that transients dive for longer periods than residents (Doreen noted that each dive lasted about 10 minutes - bingo: transients.), a technique suited for stealth hunting of marine mammals.



Not only do longer dives facilitate stealth hunting but quieter whales evidently do too, because transients vocalize less than residents, using fewer calls and sonar clicks to locate prey. Transients seem to depend more on sight and hearing to locate prey than seaborne conference calls. Although increased vocalization has been reported after a transient prey attack.




I’ll be posting some passenger photos of the Killer Whales from this trip next time, and then I’ll show you some of the other terrific things we’ve been seeing lately besides Killer Whales (yes, the Humpbacks are still out there!).

Photos by Ed Estes. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

Killers Thrill Us (Orcas, that is)

You couldn’t really say that Sunday, September 23, 2007 got off to a perfect whale watching start. The seas were calm enough, but the skies were gray and a couple of miles outside the Golden Gate Bridge it began to rain. Small, eager drops that coated eyeglasses into disobedience. Wet blue jeans and jacket hoods pasted themselves to those passengers who chose topside over the dry cabin. Then, almost as soon as it began, the rain stopped, and the first of over a dozen Humpback Whales cruised on by. Yet our soaring, collective mood hadn’t seen anything yet...



I will tell the amazing story of the Humpback Whales and the extraordinary behaviors we witnessed Sunday in another blog, but today’s story belongs to 5 Killer Whales (Orcas). Telling their story is starting at the end of our trip because that is when they appeared, after we had reveled in pair after pair, group after group, and single after single Humpback Whale(s) swimming to the north, south, east and west of us. When we thought the day could not get any better. (Ok, so maybe a Great White Shark sighting would have been pretty cool...)



At first we thought we’d spotted some Risso’s Dolphins - their tall dorsal fins can occasionally deceive the Orca-hopeful. Yet there was that improbable report that a fisherman had seen one Orca the day before (surely that was a Risso’s?). No, “LOOK, there are 4 dorsal fins...KILLER WHALES people, we’ve got KILLER WHALES ahead!” And away we went.

Eventually a 5th Orca joined the pod and we followed them for about an hour. We tried to follow at a distance but at one point some of them dove and reappeared behind us and then suddenly they were alongside us! It seemed as if I could reach out and touch 2 of the most beautiful animals in creation.


Sorry, I have no photos of that - I had to stop photographing and just see. My heart was simply beating too hard and I had to memorize that scene in a different way. Those 2 whales were watching us as they passed alongside the boat- it was a time for eye-to-eye contact.



Ed Estes took many, many photos also and both of us will be posting more in this space soon. Not to shortchange our beloved Humpbacks, we’ll have plenty of photos of them from Super Sunday coming too.



Meanwhile, book a trip and come out with us. I know now that if I can, against all odds, see 5 Killer Whales, then there must be a Blue Whale waiting for me (and you) out there!







Photos and Text by Kathleen Jacques.

Prolific Pacific

Naturalist Melinda Nakagawa posted this trip report from last Saturday. (All whale photos are courtesy of passenger Joseph Chung, who wasn't aboard last Saturday but came aboard a couple of weeks ago and photographed the Great White Shark feeding session. I thought you might want to see more photos of that trip, so take a look at what Joe saw.)

Trip Itinerary: Stopped to watch several whales before arriving at Southeast Farallon Island ("SEFI"). Helped with a landing (this is when personnel and supplies are delivered to the island) The passengers got to see the crane lower the boat from the island to the water and shuttle food and people to the island. We dropped of 2 interns, picked up 2 more and 1 US Fish & Wildlife employee.) Sea conditions were excellent for looking for whales- with flat calm waters we had great visibility. We traveled WSW to the edge of the Continental Shelf where the ocean depth drops quickly from 200 ft to thousands of feet, to search for animals that prefer deeper waters.

Sightings:
Highlight : Pair of Black-Footed Albatrosses sitting on the calm water 10 WSW of SEFI. We were off the Continental Shelf in waters 3185 ft.