Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Nikon D700| Nikkor 80-200mm + Tamron 1.4TC| Hoodman STEEL Digital Film| PS CC 2017
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Tag: Whale Watching
Whaling good time!
Copyright © 2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
I went Whale watching yesterday and saw quite a few Humpback whales in the Monterey Bay. I sailed out of Santa Cruz with the Stagnaro’s boat crew on the Legacy.
Here she is with some of the crew prepping her for our trip.
We sailed out about 2 miles into Moneterey Bay where their sister ship Velocity was already spotting whales.
We saw several flukes and spouts of breath, and heard them too! A couple of times the whales were so close to the ship I couldn’t focus on them!
The Monterey Bay is a popular place for whales of several species to feed because there’s plenty of food there. I talked about the Submarine Canyon before in this post from a Whale watching trip last year here .
I didn’t see any Breaching or lunge feeding this time, but I was thrilled to see the spouting or blowing, and their flukes above the water.
This was the second time I’d been whale watching with this company. It had been 5 yrs since I went out with them. I recommend them highly.
I have more images to share, and to tell you about an exciting sighting I saw on Saturday which was a Leucistic Hummingbird which I’ll be sharing with you later this week.
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Nikon D700| Nikkor 80-200mm + Tamron 1.4TC| Hoodman STEEL Digital Film| PS CC 2017
More to come…
Humpback Whales
Copyright ©2016 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Saturday I spent late morning until early afternoon at sea Whale Watching outside of Monterey, CA. We sailed about 12 miles off shore to the Monterey Submarine Canyon where there were quite a number of Humpback Whales, Gray Whales, and a Blue Whale feeding on Krill, and other little fishes that were abundant on Saturday.
“The Monterey Submarine Canyon is quite large…an undersea Grand Canyon. It’s 470 kilometers (292 miles) long and approximately 12 kilometers (39 ft) at its widest point with a maximum rim to floor relief of 1,700 meters (5,577feet).” ~Simon Sanctuary
It’s was quite exciting seeing the Whales! I didn’t see a Breach this time out, but saw lots of Spouting, or Blowing.
It was overcast, windy, and a bit choppy out at sea the whole time. The Sun only peeked out a couple of times.
I saw some Fluking when the whales are going to dive down as much as 50 meters.
Once they reach the depth they want they begin to slowly rise by spiraling up to the surface often in teams creating a Bubble Net. The purpose of the bubble is to congregate the Krill and prey and force them to the surface. The Krill and fish see the bubbles as a net and feeling trapped they stay in the center of the Bubble Net. The Whales come up with an explosion of air with their mouths wide open eating all they can.
Here are two images of a fin of a Humpback Whale when it breaks the surface while they’re under the surface spinning.
The Humpback often get under that Bubble Net and Lunge up with their mouths gaping open scooping up the prey. Here you see at least 3 working as a team.
I see four working together here.
Humpback Whale Lunge feeding.
Humpback Whales spend the winter in the warm waters near Costa Rica and Hawaii. Humpbacks, including mothers with calves travel thousands of miles to feast on krill, and schooling fish in the Monterey Bay while they migrate north to their feeding waters in Alaska. They grow to be 45ft to 62ft (14-19 meters) long!
I missed quite a few good photo ops b/c for the first time in my life I got sea sick. It’s NOT FUN! I will go again but, I’m taking medicine before hand.
The images are not converted to Black & White. It was so gray out that they look black and white.
Nikon D700| Nikkor 80-200mm| Lexar Digital Film| Hand-held| Developed in PS CC 2015.5
More to come…
