Monterey Bay Pelagic -- 29 July 2016

It was a pretty tough day on the water. Dense fog for most of the first 4 hours made spotting wildlife tough.
Mood lifted dramatically when we ran into a pod of Northern Right Whale Dolphins, White-sided Dolphins, and a mix of Humpbacks/Blue Whales/Fin Whale.

Scripps' Murrelets were the best bird of the day. Shearwater numbers were low, I guess typical for July trips.

Looked at a Terrafin map, and it seems like all the cold water is rather close to shore. But at least there is cold water this year! Dense swarms of low-totem pole pelagic food (forage fish? krill?) showed up on our fish finder, and it even seemed like we could see pockets or 'holes' where there were whales feeding inside the cloud of food:

Feeling a bit frustrated at how difficult it is to get a diagnostic look at rorquals. Without extensive field experience, it seems like the variability of the dorsal fin shape and size makes it so that a good head/jaw view required for separating Fin and Sei whales.

Posted on Αύγουστος 01, 2016 0737 ΜΜ by leptonia