Almost 200 gray whales have been counted by the LA-area volunteers since December 1. Surely a record will be set for these early “birds” on their way to Baja California.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/dec/29/early-whale-migration-spurs-excitement/
It’s turning out to be a record southbound migration already. Volunteers have counted 85 whales passing by the LA area since December 1.
This is the report from the ACS census team in LA:
As of 14-DEC 2011
Southbound Today —————- 7
Northbound Today —————- 0
Total Whales Today ————– 7
Southbound Calves Today ——— 0
Northbound Calves Today ——— 0
Season to Date (since 1 Dec 2011)
Southbound ——————— 19
Northbound ———————- 2
Total ————————– 21
Calves South ——————– 0
Calves North ——————– 0
Message from the observers: Great day for gray whales: three pairs plus a single whale! We saw flukes on three of the four sightings; one whale lifted its head up on each of its deep dives. Most of the sightings came within a half mile; one pair passed just above the kelp line. We saw several fin whales, two of which were lunge-feeding. We also spotted common dolphin, bottlenose dolphin and Pacific white-sided dolphin. The sun set into the haze with a tiny green flash.
This is a great way to track the migrating gray whales throughout the season. It is a SHORE-based census in Los Angeles area.
Sept 5-9, 2011 * SEARCHER * San Diego/Channel Islands/Shelf Edge: White-chinned Petrel, 12 Red-billed Tropicbirds
(San Diego) The 95-foot live-aboard Searcher departed San Diego’s Fisherman’s Landing on a sunny, warm Labor Day afternoon, bound for a 5-day pelagic expedition through the Channel Islands, over deep water canyons and along the continental shelf-edge. We headed to the Nine Mile Bank and worked our way slowly north in a zigzag fashion, following the life zones as we found them until the sunset as we were west of Oceanside.
We’ve added our 2.5 day Memorial Day Weekend trip for May 26-28 and our 5-day Pelagic Birding trip for Sep 3-7 onto the web site. Ready for bookings!
Friends and colleagues from Fishermans’ Landing were finishing up a local fishing trip and encountered a large pod of orcas who were attacking and feeding on a fin whale. This took place just offshore San Diego near the Los Coronados islands. This footage was taken by Rick Maxa, who was joined by Carl Schmidt and Doug Kern. We thank them for passing on the footage so we could get it to the experts. This pod is probably the same pod that Capt Art encountered on a trip two years ago coming home from Isla Guadalupe on a shark diving trip. There is a very distinctive juvenile with a scarred area where it’s dorsal fin WAS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXymfn6KOwE&feature=related
The orcas are attacking the fin whale in this footage. (Whale’s blow is high and slow)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSwmTPYp38g&feature=related
Great footage of a curious juvenile after the attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUoYoF8z8pw&feature=related
After the 2-hour event, the fishermen drove away and a large orca said his own goodbye!
