Killers Thrill Us (Orcas, that is)

You couldn’t really say that Sunday, September 23, 2007 got off to a perfect whale watching start. The seas were calm enough, but the skies were gray and a couple of miles outside the Golden Gate Bridge it began to rain. Small, eager drops that coated eyeglasses into disobedience. Wet blue jeans and jacket hoods pasted themselves to those passengers who chose topside over the dry cabin. Then, almost as soon as it began, the rain stopped, and the first of over a dozen Humpback Whales cruised on by. Yet our soaring, collective mood hadn’t seen anything yet...



I will tell the amazing story of the Humpback Whales and the extraordinary behaviors we witnessed Sunday in another blog, but today’s story belongs to 5 Killer Whales (Orcas). Telling their story is starting at the end of our trip because that is when they appeared, after we had reveled in pair after pair, group after group, and single after single Humpback Whale(s) swimming to the north, south, east and west of us. When we thought the day could not get any better. (Ok, so maybe a Great White Shark sighting would have been pretty cool...)



At first we thought we’d spotted some Risso’s Dolphins - their tall dorsal fins can occasionally deceive the Orca-hopeful. Yet there was that improbable report that a fisherman had seen one Orca the day before (surely that was a Risso’s?). No, “LOOK, there are 4 dorsal fins...KILLER WHALES people, we’ve got KILLER WHALES ahead!” And away we went.

Eventually a 5th Orca joined the pod and we followed them for about an hour. We tried to follow at a distance but at one point some of them dove and reappeared behind us and then suddenly they were alongside us! It seemed as if I could reach out and touch 2 of the most beautiful animals in creation.


Sorry, I have no photos of that - I had to stop photographing and just see. My heart was simply beating too hard and I had to memorize that scene in a different way. Those 2 whales were watching us as they passed alongside the boat- it was a time for eye-to-eye contact.



Ed Estes took many, many photos also and both of us will be posting more in this space soon. Not to shortchange our beloved Humpbacks, we’ll have plenty of photos of them from Super Sunday coming too.



Meanwhile, book a trip and come out with us. I know now that if I can, against all odds, see 5 Killer Whales, then there must be a Blue Whale waiting for me (and you) out there!







Photos and Text by Kathleen Jacques.

Prolific Pacific

Naturalist Melinda Nakagawa posted this trip report from last Saturday. (All whale photos are courtesy of passenger Joseph Chung, who wasn't aboard last Saturday but came aboard a couple of weeks ago and photographed the Great White Shark feeding session. I thought you might want to see more photos of that trip, so take a look at what Joe saw.)

Trip Itinerary: Stopped to watch several whales before arriving at Southeast Farallon Island ("SEFI"). Helped with a landing (this is when personnel and supplies are delivered to the island) The passengers got to see the crane lower the boat from the island to the water and shuttle food and people to the island. We dropped of 2 interns, picked up 2 more and 1 US Fish & Wildlife employee.) Sea conditions were excellent for looking for whales- with flat calm waters we had great visibility. We traveled WSW to the edge of the Continental Shelf where the ocean depth drops quickly from 200 ft to thousands of feet, to search for animals that prefer deeper waters.

Sightings:
Highlight : Pair of Black-Footed Albatrosses sitting on the calm water 10 WSW of SEFI. We were off the Continental Shelf in waters 3185 ft.

Cetaceans: 12 Humpback Whales, good views of backs and tail flukes as they sounded, with more in the distance. Observed much breaching behavior, but seen at a distance of a mile or two. Several of the whales came up close to the vessel, so passengers could hear them exhale! ~10 Harbor Porpoise near the mouth of San Francisco Bay.

Fish: 10+ blue sharks, 1 white shark, 7 ft long, 2-4 miles south of SEFI; 5 ocean sunfish (mola mola)- one was observed with a gull sitting next to it on the water, pecking at its skin. I see this behavior frequently, and anecdotally it is believed that the gulls are removing parasites from the jellyfish eaters! The individuals we observed were 2 ft long at most, but they can grow to 10 feet across!

Birds: 18 species!
2- Blackfooted Albatross; 5-7 Pomarine and Parasitic Jaegers; 200+ Sooty Shearwaters; 30 Pink-footed Shearwaters;2 Buller's Shearwater; 4 Cassin's Auklet, south of SEFI-- these birds had a complete failure in breeding in 2005 and 2006. This year they managed to breed and find enough krill to feed and fledge their chicks. Their breeding success was very low this year, but at least it is not zero like the 2 previous years!
5 Rhinoceros Auklets; Common Murre 100+ ; Brown Pelican; Double Crested Cormorants; Brandt's Cormorants; Pelagic Cormorant; 3-Elegant Terns; 20+ Red Phalaropes; 30+ Rednecked Phalaropes
Western gulls; Heermans gulls; California gulls

Pinnipeds: ~8 Northern Elephant Seals; 5-7 Northern Fur Seals; 100's California Sea Lions;5 Steller Sea Lions

Invertebrates: Moon jellies and Sea Nettle jellyfish

One final note: Thank you to passengers Cindy and Randy from Stowe, Vermont who won a free SFBay Whale Watching trip gift certificate for answering our plea for photos (seen here) of a Leatherback Sea Turtle seen on a recent trip. And, by the way, that same turtle seems to be hanging around, we've seen him/her on subsequent trips (recognizable by markings on its' head.)


Text and Photos as credited above. Posted by Kathleen Jacques.

Great White Shark Seen Feeding Near The Farallones - Shark Season Has Arrived!

Great White Sharks return to the Gulf of the Farallones to feed in late summer/ early fall with such regularity that biologists at Southeast Farallon Island are practically on a first name basis with quite a few of them. Well, at least the biologists have nicknames for them - we don’t know if the sharks can distinguish one PhD from another. Nevertheless, it is uncommon, even during shark season, to see a 15 foot Great White at the water’s surface devour an entire California Sea Lion.















On Sunday, September 2, 2007 SF Bay Whale Watching passengers witnessed just such a rare event, as a mature White Shark (biologists prefer to omit the “Great” - in the name, not as it pertains to their affection) shot up from the water’s depths, grabbed a previously killed sea lion in its jaws, and thrashed chunks of meat free using side to side motions, swallowing each bit whole.


That shark was doing exactly what it was designed to do, sustain itself with efficiency with a body adapted for the conditions and the task of survival.


According to information posted on Wikipedia the hunting techniques used by White Sharks for various prey differ. The behavior our passengers observed regarding the sea lion seems to fit: “When hunting Northern elephant seals off California, the shark immobilizes the prey with a large bite to the hindquarters(which is the main source of the seal's mobility) and waits for the seal to bleed to death. This technique is especially used on adults which are large and dangerous. Prey is normally attacked sub-surface. Harbour seals are simply grabbed from the surface and pulled down until they stop struggling. They are then eaten near the bottom. California sea lions are ambushed from below and struck in mid-body before being dragged and eaten.”
(Note rows of back-up teeth ready to replace front row teeth! Photo from Google Images.)


White Sharks are the world’s largest meat-eating fish, with females (larger than the males) growing to 20 - 22 feet and weighing over 4,000 pounds (average sizes may be more in the 10 - 16 foot, 1,500 - 2,450 pound range). That may be big, but I was still startled to learn that a pregnant female carries from 2 to 14 pups at a time, each around 5 feet long and weighing around 60 pounds apiece! All those pups look and behave like miniature adults as soon as they are born - off they go immediately, capable of hunting and self feeding.

With shark life spans of 20 years or more and many years of carefully documented sightings in the waters surrounding Southeast Farallon Island, the annual arrival of one of the neighborhood White Sharks is welcome news. For the biologists, the sharks are old friends. White Sharks are on the threatened species list so the seasonal appearance of any of the regulars is significant. So who did we see...was it Cuttail, Half Fin, Gouge, Betty, Bitehead, Spotty, Emma, Tipfin, Rasta, or the sentimental favorite - Cal Ripfin?

Photos by Ed Estes. Text by Kathleen Jacques.

Whales Watching Us

We know they pop up and look around. The whalers called it “spy-hopping” when whales slide up and out of the water just high enough so that their eyes are above water level. What do they see? Worlds above and below the waterline so radically different - what do they comprehend of boats and people and landscapes? Do they hear our voices?


Spy-hopping is different than “breaching”, it’s a slower, more careful, maybe more deliberate canvass of the neighborhood. Breaching is that upwards thrust of exuberance and vitality, more like being shot out of a canon.



The old whalers wouldn’t have had a name for the behavior exhibited last week by 2 Humpback Whales because instead of spy-hopping or breaching near The Lovely Martha the whales spent 20 minutes watching a boatload of whale watchers.

Photographer Ed Estes’ explains: “We sat there floating in the water with the engine off as two whales had surfaced near the boat. They spent the next 20 minutes or more moving around the boat circling at least three times and passing under us. There were a few others in the area that we had seen before this and even a case of spy hopping in the distance but these two seemed very curious about the boat.”


In case you wondered, the whales did not jostle the boat at all when they passed below it and resurfaced alongside (well, I know I asked that question!) Oh, and besides those 2 Humpbacks, they saw 10 more...

Photos by Ed Estes. Text by Kathleen Jacques.