Whale Watching 2013

Just got back from a short trip to Monterey Bay to show friends and family the area.  While there we did a bit of whale watching.  Overall we have tried 3 different companies and have not had a bad experience with any of them but to provide some sort of ranking, this would be tied with the top.  (Monterey Bay Whale Watch is a faster boat but with a larger passenger load and more runs per day.  The trips can run to 4-5 hours if they are seeing things but they do have to get back for the next run.  The other company runs a very small boat but it is slower, thus longer travel time to get to the whales and they do one run a day and those trips can go 5+ hours if you find whales.  So it is all dependent upon who is with you and how long you want to be out.  Remember kids and those first-timers.)

On to the show.  It was a very calm day with good visibility thus perfect for pictures.  This time I was hoping that I got things figured out with my camera so more shot would come out.  So first off lets show some tail.  We've not seen a breaching yet, except for our first trip, and it was occurring on the horizon.


There was also a couple of pairings.  Here I caught twin blows.


But I think the fun one was the mother with calf.  When I first saw the calf tail, it looked very small and if the mother was not around, you may not think it was a whale.


I do like the last one where I was able to get both mother and calf going under.

On the same trip we came across these guys.  A small group of Risso Dolphins.


So on the way back, we swung by the pier to see the sea lions.  I swear these guys have no backbone.  :-)


I was curious about the number in this ones fur?

Also while the boat was getting ready to dock, a sea otter was having lunch.  Even with my poor hearing, I could hear the tap-tap-tap of him trying to break the mussel off.


And lastly, these last two pictures where taken on the dock.  Another boat had come in and the crew was cleaning the fish caught.  They where throwing the heads overboard and there was a waiting group of sea lions, pelicans and sea gulls.  Let's just say the sea gulls where loosing out.


So overall a very good trip and we will go back.  Oh and how could I forget I got a new toy for my camera, a GPS which via Aperture, provided a track of the trip.