Friendly Whales AND a Black Footed Albatross

Naturalist Alisa Keenan tells the story of last week's wonderful trip: “We've really been getting lucky with these recent Sundays. Last week's trip was PHENOMENAL...” “We began the trip with a low and very persistent fog that engulfed us the entire ride out- the bridge was barely visible and once we arrived at the Farallones we hardly knew we were there until we were practically on top of them! Just like magic- before I had even finished my speech about the history and wildlife of the islands- our attention turned to a very large gray whale just south of Saddle rock!”

“Unlike this year's crop of shy and elusive gray whales, this whale routinely surfaced, making it easy to identify that it was of large size (I'm guessing 35-40 ft). It also displayed its flukes a number of times, making it a very pleasurable whale watching experience for our photographers.”


“Whilst observing this lone whale, ANOTHER gray appeared, this one with a characteristically deformed tail that I have observed before on past trips (I usually call him Stumpy). Life couldn't be any better at this point for all of us passengers- the water was like glass, birds were all around (did I mention there was a pair of tufted puffins drifting not too far from our boat amidst all of this activity?)”


“Suddenly, a California sea lion decided to approach our boat and compete with the whales for our attention. The charming sea lion zipped around and under the boat, popping up and checking us out for a solid fifteen minutes! At that point, the friendly pinniped had stole the show and our passengers were delighted.”



“After an incredible hour or so of watching the grays, birds and sea lion (who disappeared as quickly as he came), Captain Jimmy decided we should take the boat closer to the shelf to see what else we could run into. The fog was slowly burning off at this point, but as we traveled further southwest we saw less and less wildlife and no whales.”





“Suddenly, Captain Jimmy stopped the boat as he had spotted a lone puffin on the water. And with that came an even more incredible find- a black-footed albatross flew directly by the boat and circled us. It was incredible sight as it was the first time I had seen an adult one- they are so elusive. We followed the bird until just in the distance, it LANDED on the water to rest (another incredibly rare behavior!).”

“On our journey back to the islands for one last look, we all spotted a blow off the bow of the boat. Not one, but TWO humpback whales! They were not feeding, but were definitely headed somewhere, surfacing and blowing regularly and headed southwest. We traveled up alongside them at a distance, when suddenly they changed direction and headed straight for the boat! Just like that, we had two humpbacks diving beneath us and surfacing on the port side. It was truly delightful to see them so up close.”


“All in all, I'd say we got more than we bargained for that day, with a total of 4 or more whales, multiple CA sea lions/harbor seals, over 4 puffins, one albatross, an unimaginable amount of murres, pigeon guillemots, auklets, gulls, cormorants, etc, and a handful of harbor porpoises that were observed by the passengers. It was truly an unforgettable trip- one for the record books!”


This archive photo (by Kathleen Jacques) has come to epitomize the excitement whale watchers aboard an SFBayWhaleWatching trip experience when a whale graces us with it's nearby presence. Somehow you get the feeling that they are as curious about us as we are about them. It sounds as if Alisa's trip was one of those magical encounters that you can never forget. Special thanks to naturalist Alisa for the narration, and to passenger Ryan Haarberg for sharing his photos of this special trip!

Narration by Alisa Keenan, photos by Ryan Haarberg, archival photo by Kathleen Jacques.