Phil Friedman Outdoors

(Video) Gray whale swims under boat off Hermosa Beach feeding on krill

Northbound gray whales continue to make their way up the Baja coast and head back to Alaska completing the longest mammalian migration know to man; over 10,000 miles. The whales head to the warm water lagoons of Baja California every year around January to calf, and then head back to the Bering Sea every spring. 

Two of those whales returning home were bumped in to by a private boat on Saturday just off Hermosa Beach, CA.  The whales seem oblivious to the nearby boat focusing instead on great balls of krill for a noontime snack.

"We were about 1 mile off Hermosa Beach on Friday afternoon filming for our website HookBuzz.com," said Clark McNulty from Hermosa Beach. McNulty was with his good friends Casey and Jenny Adams on a Catalina 30 sailboat named Pegasus.

 

" As we were headed back toward the harbor I noticed a whale stick his head out of the water while remaining stationary. He was not swimming but just hanging out in one area. We were absolutely amazed by these two whales behavior. We weren't sure what they were doing at first but then realized they were feeding on blankets of krill," said McNulty.

But how often do gray whales eat krill? "We don't see it very often," said researcher Alisa Schulman-Janizer from the ACS/LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project. "It is definently more on display this season. There is surface krill everywhere; grays are known to eat over 85 types of prey."

In the video, you can see one of the whales clearly swim under the boat and occupants for a tense moment or two. Jenny Adams seemed concerned."I was going to take a picture but then I got so scared of him going under the boat that I had to stop," she said.

"The whales basically hung out on the surface siphoning all the krill in through their baleen. I have never seen anything like it. Both whales were juveniles with a length of approximately 20-25ft. At one point the whales came right up to the boat almost touching the hull of the sailboat with their faces. One of them even followed the boat for 20 yards or so! We stayed around them for about 35 minutes and then left them alone to continue feeding," said McNulty.

The orange haze you see around the whale are tiny shrimp-like creatures called krill. You can see the whale gorging on it's scrumptious feast and treating the onlookers to an Easter Weekend they will never forget. 

Northbound gray whales will be passing by Southern California for at least another few weeks while vast quantities of krill bode well for blue whale enthusiasts. 

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Orcas spotted off Palos Verdes on Saturday afternoon chasing dolphin

Captain Danny Salas of the Christopher out of Harbor Breeze Cruises in Long Beach is used to sighting whales for his passengers from the bridge of the Christoper. Today however, Salas is spotting Orcas from a lookout on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Salas was driving near Point Vicente with his 16 year old daughter Caroline when the young student from Palos Verdes High saw some giant dorsal fins slicing through the water. "Dad, I think I see a pod of killer whales." Salas pulled over and sure enough there was a sizable pod of Orcas. Captain Salas estimated that there were around 10 killer whales.

Then, off in the distance the younger Salas spied a huge pod of dolphin. "Dad, the killer whales are headed right for them." Capatain Salas said the pod of orcas headed straight for the dolphin and when they arrived, the dolphin started to jump out of the water.

"It looked to us like they were eating the dolphin," said Salas. "The dolphin reacted like they were in fear for their lives; not only jumping out of the water but swimming in every direction looking confused."

Salas alerted the Christopher who was departing Long Beach at 3pm for the afternoon whale watch trip. The orcas were headed east towards Long Beach so the passengers on board are sure to get a great show in minutes.

"I owe this one to my daughters eagle eye," said Salas. "It looks like we are going to have some inctredible sights for Easter."

It appears as though this pod of killer whales was actually spotted earlier. I recieved the following message on Facebook from Scientist Alisa Shulman-Janiger .

"Our observers first spotted the orcas off of the ACS/LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project post (at Pt, Vicente) around 2pm. They confirmed tham as orcas by 2:15 and called me," said scientist Alisa Shulman-Janiger. " I called about 15 people, including the captain of the Voyager and Kera Mathes (LB Aquarium); Kera called the Christopher about 2:25 to tell them about the orcas (they had not yet heard). I have identified 8 orcas - including t3 males - so far from the photos taken."

Bernardo Alps provided all of these dramatic photos of the killer whale pod off Palos Verdes. He posted the following on Facebook:

"Got "The Call" from Alisa just after ordering lunch at Puesta Del Sol on Saturday. Diane drove me home, I raced over to Long Beach just in time to hop on the Kristina out of Harbor Breeze Cruises with Capt. Gary Wiley.

We passed a pod of common dolphins and two gray whales to catch up with the killer whales about 6 miles south of Point Fermin heading towards Catalina Island. There were six whales and I immediately recognized CA217, the adult male with the missing dorsal nicknamed Chopfin, and CA140, a female with a very distinctive double notch in the trailing edge of her dorsal fin.

I have seen both of them several times before. Capt. Gary positioned us perfectly and I was able to obtain excellent ID photos of all animals. The orcas pretty much ignored the small flotilla following them and at one time surfaced just 30 feet from the Kristina.

As were heading home already late, we came across two more orcas, little more than a mile from the main group. Capt. Gary turned the Kristina around so that we could ID these two additional whales. Just as we were going to leave them, now really late, they attacked a small California sea lion. They knocked the pinniped around for a few minutes and then headed off. Here are some of my photos from that amazing trip."

Thank you Bernardo! 

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Entangled whale Bob saved off Palos Verdes (Phil Friedman for Patch)

Rescuers freed an entangled gray whale off the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Redondo Beach on Thursday afternoon.

The whale, which was "making slow circles and really struggling," was cut free at about 1:30 p.m., said Brad Sawyer, the captain of the whale-watching boat Voyager out of King Harbor.

"When freed, it took off at high speed, swimming fast!" wrote an administrator of the American Cetacean Society - Los Angeles Chapter page on Facebook. "Its entanglement wound (was) not severe."

The administrator noted that the whale has "an outstanding chance of surviving."

"We feel pretty confident that the rest of the netting will fall off," said Kelli Lewis of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.

Sawyer said they nicknamed the whale "Bob," after Sawyer's brother who died two days ago.

"We have decided to call this whale Bob as a way to honor my brother," Sawyer said.

 Read the rest of the story

 

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Listen: Ted Nugent goes CRAZY on Whale Wars Paul Watson

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(Video) Curious fin whales check out mysterious sinking boat off Long Beach

Captain Chris Batts of the Christopher out of Harbor Breeze Cruises in Long Beach had an exciting morning. Besides seeing 6 gray whales and four fin whales along with hundreds of dolphin, the passengers on board also saw a boat sinking about 9 miles from Long Beach.

 

 “It looked like about a 35-foot yacht.” Said Batts. I heard that she had trouble around 7-am but we came upon her around 10 and she was about ¾’s underwater.” The United States Coast Guard was on scene with a boat as well as a helicopter doing circles above the troubled boat.

 

The sinking boat seemed to attract the curiosity of the passing fin whales too. “They (whales) seemed to slow down and circle the sinking boat,” said Batts. “It was as though they were checking it out.”

 

United States Coast Guard Petty Officer First Class Adam Eggers said that details were lacking and due to the nature of the way the ship sank, a higher level of scrutiny is appropriate.

 

Eggers said that the Coast Guard was alerted that a ship was sinking off Long Beach on Saturday morning. “The Coast Guard arrived on scene and found a 35-foot sportfisher sinking,” said Eggers.

 

No passengers were on board or in the water and after the Coast Guard made some fly-bys looking for possible survivors, the search and rescue was called off. Eggers said that the Coast Guard is trying to determine how and why the boat sank and whether it was intentional or not.

 

You can hear Captain Chris Batts live from the Christopher on Saturday morning describing the sinking ship as well as reporting on the whales he and his passengers were lucky enough to have seen.

 

 

Killer whales harass gray whale off Palos Verdes

On Wednesday, five of the ten transient orcas that have been seen every day of 2012 in Southern California waters harassed a gray whale about ½ mile off the Point Vicente Interpretive Center on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

 

Volunteer spotters for the ACS-LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project watched in awe from high a top the Palos lookout. Several boats were on scene getting an even more up close and personal look.

 

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who runs the project, told Pete Thomas Outdoors that one adult and four younger killer whales were involved in the confrontation, but the incident ended when the gray whale entered the kelp zone. The researcher said the whale was not injured.

While whale watchers have enjoyed the treat of seeing orcas for the past several days, there is little doubt that the migrating gray whales and sea lions share their enthusiasm. On several occasions in the past four days, the pod of orcas has been seen feeding on or eating sea lions off Los Angeles and Orange County.

 

Diane Alps posted the following on Facebook. Alisa Shulman- Janiger is out on the water and witnessed the attack on the sea lion. Can't wait to hear from her later today.

 

Killer whales actually belong to the order, Delphinidae and are the largest dolphins. They can swim up to 30-mph and eat up to 5% of their body weight each day. For an average orca, that means about 500 pounds of food per day. That has a lot of Southern California sea lions that are used to being protected by law in the crosshairs of these apex predators.

 

After their run in with the gray whale, the five orcas joined the other five this afternoon where all 10 were spotted off El Segundo. Transient orcas are more often seen off Monterey but lately have been seen more frequently off Southern California, perhaps because of the abundance off sea lions. 

Whale watchers are hoping that the pod of killer whales are not headed north while the mammalian population may be breathing a sigh of relief for the time being. 

 

Photo: Two orcas swimming off Newport Beach, one with a a sea lion carcass in it's mouth.

 Thor Brisbin: from Newport Landing/Davy's Locker

 

Happy Holidays for Southern California Whale Watchers

 

Southern California whale watchers are being treated to perfect weather as well as record numbers of gray whales passing by the coast. The ACS-LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project at Point Vicente on the Palos Verdes Peninsula have logged over 150 sightings of southbound gray whales in the month of December. The previous high for December sightings occured in 1996 with 133 of the leviathans being counted. 

On Monday, 27 gray whales were logged passing by Point Vicente; more gray whales than had ever been logged before on any December day. The journey from the Bering and Chukchi seas to the lagoons in Baja California and back averages between 10,000 to 14,000 miles.

Tuesday was a marvellous day out of Harbor Breeze Cruises  on the Christopher as whale watchers saw 10 gray whales on two trips out of Rainbow Harbor in Long Beach. On the Monday morning trip whale watchers saw 5 gray whales along with a pod of dolphin 500 strong. "We have been seeing lots of gray whales with a lot of other life too," said Scout Louie from Harbor Breeze. 

On Sunday, the Christopher came across 3 gray whales, 8 fin whales, a mess of dolphin and a Humpback whale. "It was an extraordinary day," said Louie.

Gray whales feed on small crustaceans on the bottom of the ocean by rolling on their sides and drawing up bottom sediments and lots of seawater.

The whale then closes its mouth expelling the water and sediment through its baleen plates and leaving a tasty meal inside. Adult males can reach 46 feet, and while adult females can reach 50 feet. They weigh between 30 to 40 tons.

Besides a whale watch trip another way to track whales this year is on your computer. The Marine Mammal Institute within Oregon State University has tagged two gray whales that you can track online. Vavara and Agent are presently making their way across the Bering Sea but taking very different routes.

If you plan on whale watching from your own boat, make sure you are aware of NOAA’s Marine Mammal Viewing Guidelines and Regulations—federal law prohibits harassment of these whales so please remain at least 100 yards from the migrating whales. Do not attempt to touch or swim with these creatures as their behavior can be unpredictable.

Gray whales were given full protection in 1947 by the International Whaling Commission. Since that time, the eastern north Pacific gray whale population has rebounded to near its original population size somewhere between 19,000 and 23,000 whales.

 A Dec. 18 post on YouTube by RIPproductions9 off Laguna Beach shows three divers interacting with a  gray whale. The whale makes a u-turn towards the camera and gives these divers a Christmas present they will have for a lifetime.

These are truly Happy Holidays for Southern California whale watchers and there is nothing like an up close and personal encounter with one of these truly remarkable creatures. 

Photo Credit: A gray whale spyhops in one of the Baja lagoons where the species spends their winters calving and nursing every year.   Alisa Shulman-Janiger

 

 

 

 

Video: Spectacular underwater video of a baby gray whale off Laguna Beach

A December 18th post on You Tube by RIPproductions9 off Laguna Beach shows 3 divers interacting with a baby gray whale. The baby gray whale makes a u-turn towards the camera and gives these divers a Christmas present they will have for a lifetime.

 

The gray whale migration is underway now as the leviathans are headed south from the Bering Sea to the warm water lagoons of Baja California for calving. The season is just starting to hit it's peak for Southern California whale watchers as more and more grays have been seen passing through recently.

Kurt Lieber posted this response after viewing this video. "That was a dive encounter of a lifetime. I have over 1,500 dives in So Cal and have NEVER seen a whale while diving. That 51 second interaction will live within you for the rest of your life. Congrats! And thanks for sharing."

 

 

Orcas spotted off the Palos Verdes Coast on board the Kristina

Photo credit: A previous photo of a majestic Orca by NOAA

Captain Bryce Doon on board the Kristina out of Harbor Breeze Cruises in Long Beach reported seeing over 12 orcas off Point Vicente on the 3pm whale watch trip today. "We tried to get an accurate count of the pod and came up with 15," said Doon. "Our passengers were really excited to see them."

Killer whales are actually dolphins. In fact, they are the largest dolphins in existence measuring over 30 feet in length and weighing up to 12,000-pounds. Their brains are 5-times larger than the human brain and are very social, intelligent and curious creatures.

Killer whales are swift predators capable of traveling up to 30 miles per hour. They eat up to 5% of their body weight per day which can translate up to 500-pounds of food for each orca.

Life expectancy of a Killer Whale in the wild is 50 - 60 years for males, and up to 90 years for females, however, Killer Whales held in captivity have not lived longer than 30 years, and the average life expectancy for captive Orcas is only 20 years.

Recently, Harbor Breeze Cruises has been seeing lots of dolphin as well as fin whales. Fin whales are the second largest whale in the world and one of the fastest clocking in at around 23 miles per hour.

"This just spices things up for our whale watchers," said Scott Louie from Harbor Breeze Cruises. "We are just hoping they stick around a while."

 

(Video) Surfer almost swallowed up by a humpback whale

A woman floating on a surfboard had the scare of her life when a humpback whale came to the surface to lunge feed on a school of anchovies just a few feet away. The woman was floating near Santa Cruz, Ca in the Northern end of Monterey Bay when the whale almost made a lunch meal out of her.

The circus-like atmosphere has just about anything that floats getting closer and closer to feeding whales prompting experts and officials to wonder when something tragic might occur. More and more of these close encounters continue to occur as more and more thrill seekers try for an up close and personal encounter with these magnificent leviathans.

A kyacker in Redondo Beach, CA has a similar experience recently when a blue whale surface to lunge feed just a few feet of his bow. NOAA has set up guidlines for wouldbe whale watchers.

Some of those guidelines include:

• Vessels should not be operated at speeds faster than a whale or group of whales while paralleling them within 100 yards.
• Vessels should be operated at a constant speed while paralleling or following whales within 100 yards.
• Vessels should do nothing to cause a whale to change direction.
• Aircraft should not fly lower than 1,000 feet while within a horizontal distance of 100 yards from a whale.

Generally, a whale's normal behavior should not be interrupted.  Such annoyance may cause a whale to change its direction rapidly, swim faster, or swim in an erratic pattern.  To interrupt a whale's normal activity constitutes harassment and is against the law.

Let's just hope that something tragic doesn't happen as whale watchers continue to push the envelope.

 

 

 

Video: Incredible underwater blue whale footage off Redondo Beach

 Some incredible footage of blue whales off Redondo Beach, CA was posted on YouTube by MrRJCtube showing the largest creatures on the face of the earth lunge feeding and swimming underwater. The footage was shot using a Go Pro video camera on a kayak in the deep water, krill rich canyons only 3-5 miles off Redondo Beach.

 

Blue whales have been seen here feeding on krill for a few months now entertaining whale watchers with mammoth flukes and spectacular surface feeding. It’s important to realize that NOAA  has set up whale watching guidelines so as to not disturb these regal creatures. Some of those guidelines include:

• Vessels should not be operated at speeds faster than a whale or group of whales while paralleling them within 100 yards.
• Vessels should be operated at a constant speed while paralleling or following whales within 100 yards.
• Vessels should do nothing to cause a whale to change direction.
• Aircraft should not fly lower than 1,000 feet while within a horizontal distance of 100 yards from a whale.

Generally, a whale's normal behavior should not be interrupted.  Such annoyance may cause a whale to change its direction rapidly, swim faster, or swim in an erratic pattern.  To interrupt a whale's normal activity constitutes harassment and is against the law.

The sheer size of these might leviathans can bee seen as the videographer jumps in the water to film these creatures. Although no harm is intended to the whales, you are not allowed to swim with them and one should be cautious as these are enormous, unpredictable creatures. Still, one has to marvel at the magnificent footage captured on this very special day in the Santa Monica Bay.

Blue whales continue to show in impressive numbers from Dana Point to Santa Barbara.