Back to Back - Sea Turtles and Whales

Humpbacks and a Leatherback. It’s been quite an exciting time these last couple of weeks out in the Gulf of the Farallones. Sightings of Humpback Whales have continued strong; we’ve been seeing multiple groups of 3 or 4 individuals on every trip. The big news last week was the sighting of a giant Leatherback Turtle - I missed that trip and don’t have a photo for you, but check out the link. Several of the passengers who’d seen it that day sent emails telling us how amazing it was. Hey, you never know, it could still be in the area, maybe he/she will swim past us again looking for a jellyfish lunch...



Here are trip reports from Naturalists Doreen Gurrola and David Wimpfheimer for the last couple of trips:

Naturalist - Doreen Gurrola:

Weather: >15 knot wind NW, 5-7’ swell. Overcast and patchy fog.
**Biggest Highlight: Leatherback sea turtle. This endangered species is a rare sighting. Location: Near N buoy off Bolinas and >10 miles from Southeast Farallon Islands. Animal Description: adult >5'. Behavior: Logging at the surface, shallow dives, remained in the area for over 30 minutes. Several humpbacks and sea lions in vicinity of leatherback, no jellies (their food) seen in area, but later lots of moon jellies and sea nettles at South East Farallon Island.


Other sightings: Humpback whales, 9-11 seen in groups of 1-3. near N buoy and pilot buoy. Some subsurface feeding and one breach. Harbor porpoise: 5+ seen near Pt. Bonita.
California sea lions: 100s (throughout day). Harbor seals: >50 (at coast and islands).
Elephant seals: 2-3 (near crane, Southeast Farallon Island). Steller sea lion: 2-3 (at Indian Head, Southeast Farallon Island). Northern fur seal: >20 (at Indian Head, Southeast Farallon Island).
Birds: 14 species. Sooty Shearwaters (100s), Brown Pelican, Brandt’s Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Double-crested Cormorant, Black Oyster Catcher, Western Gull, Heermann’s Gull, Caspian Tern, Forster’s Tern, Common Murre, Pigeon Guillemot, Cassin’s Auklet, Tufted Puffin, 2 Brown Boobies (at Sugarloaf ).



Naturalist - David Wimpfheimer:

Despite some windy conditions on the way out to the Farallon Islands we spent almost half an hour with two very cooperative Humpback Whales. While we visited the island we saw many seabirds including about 10 Tufted Puffins mostly on the top of the large rock known as Sugarloaf. The puffins breed there, so what was more surprising was the observation of two Brown Boobies. These are subtropical birds that breed in Mexico and other countries south to the equator. Whether these were the same two boobies that were here last year is unknown.

Other birds observed included: Sooty Shearwater, Pigeon Guillemot, Rhinoceros Auklet, Red-necked Phalarope and Elegant Tern. A lot of the morning wind had subsided and the return trip to SF was much smoother. We did see an additional 8-10 Humpback Whales. We had good views of the whales' flukes several times as they sounded.



Photos by Ed Estes and Kathleen Jacques. Text by Kathleen Jacques.