Whale of a time for whale watching
Whale sightings in the Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary off the Bay Area coast this past year were among the highest ever verified by naturalists, reported both the Oceanic Society and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Sightings this past week out of Monterey make a repeat year appear imminent. On the Bay Area coast, the annual winter trips, which focus on the gray whale migration, start this weekend out of Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay.
In late summer and fall, on 37 trips with the Oceanic Society, naturalists verified sightings of 232 blue whales (six per trip) and 825 humpback whales (22 per trip), the highest on record for its public whale watching trips. In addition, sightings of marine birds were also sensational, drawn to the area most by an endless buffet of krill and juvenile anchovies.
At Southeast Farallon Island, marine biologists from Point Blue Conservation, perched at a lookout, had the highest verified whale sightings on June 26: 216 humpback whales, 14 blue whales and 18 whales that were unidentified.
In more than 50 years of biologists logging one- and two-hour sightings from the
island, this short siege is likely the record, said Mary
Jane Schramm of NOAA. She said most of the whales, other marine mammals, fish and seabirds were drawn to the Bay Area coast “by incredible amounts of krill, tiny shrimp-like crustaceans, and small fish in the sanctuary’s protected waters.”
“The variations in sightings reflects how concentrated the whales were in one particular area, versus other areas,” Schramm said. “The Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary was a real hot spot.”
Gray whales, on the other hand, have started their winter-to-early summer migration between their winter birthing and mating grounds
off Baja to 5,000 miles north to their summer feeding grounds off the Alaskan Peninsula and Aleutian Islands.
“The whale sightings have been incredible,” said Chris
Biertuempfel of the Oceanic Society. “The previous year was fantastic, but this past year even eclipsed that.”
Whale sightings in San Francisco Bay were once so rare that just spotting the “puff-of-smoke” of a whale’s exhale from its blow hole could make the news. This past year, it became a common sighting from boats and the Marin Headlands.
The giant whales are a bridge between people, regardless of their backgrounds, according to the Oceanic Society. “The majority of our customers come in twos and they are newcomers,” Biertuempfel said.
This year’s season is already a go out of Monterey Bay. Migrating gray whales are moving through. Whale watchers estimate that 15 to 20 humpbacks, either juveniles or nonpregnant females, have not migrated south and have remained in the feeding grounds. They are joined by a pod of orcas, waiting for the annual arrival of female gray whales with their young calves in hopes of dislodging a calf for a feast.
On a trip out from Monterey this past week, those aboard Princess Monterey saw four gray whales off Lovers Point, three humpback whales along the edge of the submarine canyon and five orcas off Marina Beach. Along the way, they had a buffet of bird sightings that included Cassin’s auklets, loons, grebes, murres, pelicans and northern fulmars.