Naturalist Log for Sunday, October 3rd: Such good weather! Blue skies, calm winds, and mild swells set the mood today as Captain Danny and I (Isaiah) took two loads of passengers out into the bay. Our first trip came upon a group of thirty Risso’s Dolphin shortly after leaving the harbor, who breached repeatedly in fantastic lighting until we left them in search of humpbacks, which we found out in the middle of the bay, over the Monterey Submarine Canyon. All told, some 15 humpbacks were sighted about, though two humpbacks were engaged in surface lunge feeding. Low and behold, the two whales were well known to us: Ratchet (who I personally have seen every year since 2012) and Lemur (whose barnacle scars undertail resemble a lemur’s face. We watched the great lungers until the bitter end of our timeframe, and returned to pick up our second trip. While no Risso’s dolphin were sighted on the second trip, Ratchet and Lemur were re-sighted, and this time with three other whales, all engaged in more lunge feeding. All told, I estimate that over 90,000 anchovies lost their lives for our viewing pleasure today.
–Naturalist Isaiah
