You Never Know What You'll See (or miss)

Blue Whales, Gray Whales, Humpback Whales, and Great White Sharks too, oh my. That’s what SFBay Whale Watching passengers saw over the course of two days last weekend. But I missed the spectacle: missed the 88 foot long Blue Whale, missed the first sighting of a southbound migrating Gray Whale, missed the six playful Humpbacks, missed the two White Sharks feeding on the same sea lion.


Fortunately Francesca Sarda, a PhD student from Barcelona University, took these photos of the Blue Whale seen on last Saturday's trip. Thank you Francesca! As of yesterday Blue Whales have been reported north of the Farallon Islands so book a trip with us and bring your camera.




Before I heard about the bounty seen last weekend I planned on telling you about the unexpected things I actually had recently seen.







Photographer Ed Estes and I always compare notes after a trip on the unusual things that we’ve seen, for instance the sighting of an injured animal like this Humpback Whale. We report injured animals to The Marine Mammal Center in some instances, and we may consult senior Naturalists such as Carol Keiper and Doreen Gurrola in other cases for insight and information.






Ed saw this Harbor Seal with some kind of ring (plastic?) seemingly choking it. Unless the seal can be caught and the debris removed, we'll never know if the ring proved fatal.






Number 95 here has a better story. I called Carol about this California Sea Lion. She told me that the number, placed there with safe haircolor, helps identify the sea lion as part of a study probably being conducted out of Southern California. She assures us that molting will restore the sea lion's pre-95 hair-do.





Look at the rope (?) mark on this Humpback Whale - in front of the dorsal fin. See the depression it made? How tightly it must have once bound the whale. See blog entry dated December 16, 2006 for a story on disentangling whales from marine debris and you'll get a better understanding of the perils marine mammals face every day. This whale is lucky to have gotten free and to have healed so nicely.



It wasn't until I was home going through the day's photos that I realized that one of the many Humpback Whales I'd seen that day had a serious injury, now healed. Was it from a boat strike? Could that whale possibly be one of the famous off-course whales that had spent many days in the Sacramento River Delta last spring? (See blog dated May 20, 2007.) I sent the photos to Carol and Doreen who passed them along to researchers at Cascadia Research in Olympia, Washington. Researchers were familiar with this whale. Not one of the Delta whales, but nevertheless a known survivor of some unknown accident. I'm glad I didn't miss that. Each trip truly is an adventure.


Photos by Ed Estes and Kathleen Jacques. Text by Kathleen Jacques. Photos of Blue Whales by Francesca Sarda.