Calm seas! Calm seas! What great deed hath we fulfilled to be so graced with a literal sea of tranquility? Okay, “calm” is relative. As far as Monterey goes, and compared to the relentless wind chop we’ve been seeing lately, today was dead calm. Oh yeah, we saw whales. Fin whales! Our morning trip came upon a group of 4, and let me tell you, they were the best four fin whales I have ever seen (in ten years of whaling). Slow, predictable, and “friendly,” the group spent an exorbitant amount of time at the surface, and made several CLOSE passes by the boat. Truly wonderful creatures. Suddenly, a red cloud appeared behind one of them: recycled krill, if you will! Moments after leaving the fin whales, a small pod of Risso’s Dolphin appeared, which we watch for a few minutes before moving on. After quite some time in searching, we finally stumbled upon several humpback whales, settling on a pair, who gave us fantastic looks, close passes, and big tails before running out of time. Overall, a fantastic trip. Our second trip relocated the fin whales, though two of them had moved on, leaving us with a cow-calf pair who gave us good looks for a while, before turning into 10 minute divers. Hence, we pressed on, and after a long search, we found another pod of Risso’s Dolphin who gave us good and close passes in clear water- we could see them 40 feet down! 4 Harbor Porpoise appeared suddenly off the bow, and almost everybody on the boat got to see them (they can be elusive). Finally, it was time to go home, which we did without incident.
-Naturalist Isaiah
