Pete Thomas Outdoors

Orca gives surfing exhibition behind Malibu Baywatch boat

 

Last week we shared a story about killer whales surfing in a boat's wakes off La Paz, Mexico, and referred to prior sightings of this this rarely observed behavior elsewhere in the Sea of Cortez.

Now there's evidence, courtesy of boat captain Eric Astourian of Baywatch Malibu, that at least one orca has been surfing recently off Southern California.

The accompanying video shows a young killer whale, or orca, riding behind a Baywatch boat on May 4 off northern Malibu. (The footage was uploaded to YouTube on Saturday.)

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a killer whale researcher, says the mammal probably is a 2 1/2-year-old female cataloged as CA51d and nicknamed Comet because of its distinctive eyepatch. (Comet is pitcured at right in a photo taken in 2011 off Point Fermin on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.)

That would make sense because the CA51 family group of transient killer whales has been spotted recently in Southland waters--most recently on Saturday off Dana Point.

Though most transient killer whale sightings occur farther north and specifically in the Monterey area, the CA51s are becoming regular visitors to Southern California, and they're famously boat friendly.

They include the mom (CA51), her 15-year-old son (CA51B), her younger son (CA51C), and Comet (CA51D).

--Pete Thomas

Photo credit: Alisa Schulman-Janiger

Humpback whale stranded on shoal rescued in La Paz Bay

 

A juvenile humpback whale that had become stranded in shallow water in La Paz Bay was rescued Sunday by authorities and citizens who used a rope and boats to pull the cetacean into deeper water.

According to Octavo Dia, the rescue effort lasted two-plus hours and the whale seemed to swim freely away despite the long and very dramatic ordeal.

(The accompanying Cabovision video shows part of the rescue effort, including the whale being pulled from the shoal. It does not show the whale swimming to freedom.)

"The effort followed the protocol for marine mammal rescue," Octavo Dia reported. "The struggle to save the whale lasted over two hours, but the successful results incited elated uproar in the concerned witnesses."

The whale had become stranded beyond El Coromuel Beach during low tide. El Coromuel is north of La Paz, which is the capital of Baja California Sur. Among those assisting in the rescue effort were members of a local stranding network.

Jonathan Roldan, who runs the Tailhunter International sportfishing business in La Paz, posted this statement along with four photos on its Facebook page:

"Hope you got to see this yesterday. It was incredible. About 30 pangas and launches out there trying to help this stranded whale right off the beach on one of the shoals. Folks were lined up in the streets with cameras and binoculars."

--Photo is courtesy of Octavo Dia

'Delta' the blue whale taxis into Southland waters; sporadic sightings off California date to 1987

A blue whale affectionately nicknamed Delta because of the peculiar shape of its fluke made quite a splash on Facebook last week after being photographed off Dana Point.

The whale earned the nickname because both ends of its fluke are turned upward, like winglets on an airplane wing. Facebook users posting comments shared where they had seen--or thought they had seen--the whale.

According to Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington, two blue whales with similar fluke formations have been photo-cataloged in the eastern Pacific. The image captured last week off Dana Point, by Frank Brennan of Dana Wharf Whale Watch, was matched to a whale cataloged as #135 (see video).

 

Annie Douglas of Cascadia stated via email that the first known sighting of  #135 (Delta) was on October 7, 1987, in the Gulf of the Farallones beyond San Francisco.

Before last week's sighting it had been encountered 15 different years (including two years off Baja California) and 29 times, based on photo matches. From 1987 to 2005 most encounters were off northern Central California but, interestingly, according to Cascadia's records, all known sightings since 2007 were off Southern California.

About 2,000 endangered blue whales ply California waters seasonally, with the 2013 season apparently just getting underway. Delta, it seems, is among the early arrivals.

It's not clear whether the shape of the mammal's fluke is because of a birth defect, but the right tip appears to be more upturned than in previous years.  Also, Douglas said, the sex of #135, or Delta, is not known.

--Pete Thomas

--Note: For more on this story see Dana Wharf's Facebook page and Pete's post on GrindTv's Big Blue blog

Dolphin 'funeral procession' witnessed off Dana Point (video)

 

The waters off Dana Point on Tuesday were the scene of what one boater described as a dolphin funeral procession.

The accompanying footage shows a bottlenose dolphin, presumably a mother, carrying her dead calf on her back, while other dolphins followed close by. (Cetaceans have been known to tote dead offspring in what appears to be mourning behavior, but the phenomenon is rarely witnessed.)

The macabre episode revealed that not every mammal sighting is a cause for celebration, and that dolphins, like people, experience the loss of young and deal with that loss in ways that are both sad and touching.

The footage was provided by Capt. Dave's Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari (above) and Dana Wharf Whale Watch (below).

"I believe this calf has been dead for many days, possibly weeks," Capt. David Anderson states in his video description. "You can see the flesh is decaying. In my nearly twenty years on the water whale watching I have never seen this behavior. Nor have I ever seen anything quite as moving as this mother who refuses to let go of her poor calf."

Said Tony Green, a passenger aboard the Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari vessel: "The last thing I expected to see today was a funeral procession and it was a pretty profound statement about the emotions that those animals feel and how much … alike we are."

 

Dead fin whale, probably killed by a ship, found in L.A. Harbor

A dead fin whale estimated to measure about 60 feet arrived in Los Angeles Harbor on Tuesday evening on the bow section of a container ship that most likely delivered its fatal wounds.

Only about 45 feet of the carcass, not including the head or tail, was visible above and just below the surface on Wednesday, after the whale had been tied to a dock (see photos). It was reasonably fresh, indicating that the whale had died recently, perhaps within 24 hours of when it was discovered.

"Based on the shape of the carcass at the posterior end, it appears that there was impact of blunt force, and around that area there was hemorrhaging," Christina Fahy, an NOAA Fisheries biologist who inspected the carcass Wednesday, stated via email. "Which means the whale was alive when it was struck."

Fahy could not state as fact that the ship in question had killed the whale. That ship is the Ever Daity of the Evergreen line.

According to the Daily Breeze, it's from Coco Solo, Panama.

Fahy added: "The Coast Guard noted that the whale was higher in the water than last night, so it was just starting to bloat. [But] the whale did not smell, nor was its skin sloughing, so I suspect it was a recent occurrence."

The carcass was to be towed to the west end of San Clemente Island on Wednesday night.

A handful of whales, often including endangered fin whales and blue whales, are killed by ship strikes off California each year.

Blue whales are the largest creatures to have inhabited the planet, measuring to 100 feet and weighing up to 150 tons. Fin whales are the second largest whale species, and can measure to nearly 80 feet.

Both whales feed on tiny shrimp-like krill, which has been bountiful off Southern California this winter. There have been several fin whale sightings recently off the Los Angeles area, including busy shipping areas, and Orange County.

Boaters who encounter an injured or distressed whale are asked to call NOAA's 24-hour hotline at 877-767-9425, or to hail the Coast Guard on VHF Channel 16.

--Pete Thomas

--Photos: Top image shows fin whale belly-up alongside dock, with NOAA scientist Christina Fahy and U.S. Coast Guard Ensign Brandon Earhart in the foreground. David Janiger, curatorial assistant of mammals at the L.A. County Museum of Natural History, is kneeling in the background. NOAA public affairs officer Jim Milbury also is pictured. Second image reveals a closer look at the whale and its rorqual pleats (throat grooves). Credit: Alisa Schulman-Janiger

Blue whales make rare February showing off Orange County

Whale watchers off Dana Point enjoyed a rare February treat Sunday when at five two blue whales appeared off Orange County (one is pictured above; see video posted below).

Blue whales, which can measure to about 100 feet and weigh up to 150 tons,  are the largest creatures to have inhabited the planet.

Tho on Sunday were spotted by passengers aboard mid-day boats from Dana Wharf Whale Watching and Capt. Dave's Dolphin & Whale Watching, both of which operate from Dana Wharf. During a late-afternoon trip the latter landing tallied five blue whales and one fin whale.

Although it has become common in recent years to see blue whales off Southern California from about June through October, it's rare but not unheard of to see them this far north during the winter.

(Many of the 2,000 or so blue whales that utilize California waters during the summer are believed to spend the winter at an offshore region known as the Costa Rica Dome, off Central America.)

Interestingly, blue whales were spotted off Monterey in Central California in mid-February, and at least one was spotted off the Los Angeles area last week.

Blue whales feed on tiny shrimp-like krill, which has been unusually abundant this winter, luring not only blue whales but fin whales, the world's second-largest whale species, to Southern California coastal waters.

The timing of Sunday's sighting couldn't be better as it comes during a lag period in the gray whale migration. There are about 21,000 gray whales and most are still off Baja California, where sprawling lagoons serve as nursing and mating grounds.

Their northbound journey to Arctic home waters will gather momentum over the next few weeks.

--Image showing one of two blue whales that were spotted Sunday off Dana Point is courtesy of Dana Wharf Whale Watching

 

Amazing baby gray whale encounter videotaped off Baja

 

If the baby gray whale in the accompanying video were a kitten, you'd expect it to purr.

The incredible footage was captured this past week by David Anderson during a family vacation to Magdalena Bay on Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

Intimately close encounters with gray whales in Baja's lagoons are not unusual, and gray whale calves often approach people aboard skiffs, with their mothers, and allow themselves to be touched.

But the calf that spent a full hour with the Anderson group--the footage was boiled down to three minutes--seemed to have adored the human touch more than anything else it had experienced in its brief existence. Excluding mother's milk, of course.

Anderson, who runs Capt. Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari in Dana Point, Calif., describes this event as "one of the best encounters I have ever had with a whale in my life. And I have had many."

It is incredible, in large part, because of the whale's seemingly endless craving for human affection; the opening of its mouth and willingness to be caressed in such a vulnerable area, and the closeups of the eyes, above and below water.

At least once the calf seems to close its eyes upon being stroked on its head, as might a kitten or puppy.

What's missing, however, is the calf's mother, and how she responded to her baby's prolonged human encounter. Presumably she was nearby and simply didn't make Anderson's final editing cut.

Gray whales more than a little romantic off Dana Point (video)

 

Get a lagoon!

Passengers aboard a Southern California whale-watching boat on Sunday enjoyed a rare sighting: that of two gray whales courting and possibly mating while they migrated past the the Dana Point region.

About 21,000 gray whales migrate about 6,000 miles annually from Arctic feeding grounds to Baja California lagoons, and the vast majority of breeding-age whales wait until they reach those lagoons to cavort and begin the process of making babies.

(Note: A version of this post also appears on the GrindTv.com Outdoor blog.)

But sometimes, apparently, the wait is just too long. Those aboard Capt. Dave's Dolphin & Whale Watching Safari's catamaran were witness to quite a show: one that included courtship and lots of rubbing together, some tail-thrashing and even an odd-looking spyhop.

"You don't normally see the mating taking place up here. It usually happens down in the lagoons in Mexico where they breed," Capt. Tom Southern tells his passengers. "But you are actually seeing it happening right here... We have two gray whales that really like each other here."

As for the bottlenose dolphin that appears next to the whales in the footage, it needs to learn some manners.

Hawaii officials log three vessel-whale collisions in 24 hours

With as many as 10,000 humpback whales in Hawaiian waters during the winter breeding season, collisions between whales and boats occur sporadically. But three collisions within 24 hours--two off Maui and one off Kona on the Big Island--is an alarming number.

Hawaii News Now reports that a calf was struck off the Maui port of Lahaina on Tuesday evening. NOAA was alerted after blood was spotted in the water.

On Wednesay morning a boat struck a larger humpback, leaving it with three gash wounds. It's not clear whether either if these incidents involved a commercial tour boat, or a private vessel.

The Kona incident was unique in that a whale surfaced and revealed its fluke, flipping a 20-foot single-outrigger kayak. The man in the kayak, who was not seriously injured, was rescued by the crew of a nearby tour boat.

Boaters throughout island waters are asked to exercise extreme caution during the whale season, and to call 888-256-9840 if they spot marine mammals in distress.

--Image posted above is generic. Video posted below shows interaction between a humpback whale and tour boat off Kona in mid-July

 

Amazing humpback whale footage off Maui, but that music?

 

There have been several incredible humpback whale encounters recently off Maui, but few that were shared with a corny sea ditty as accompaniment.

Viewers are likely to find this choice of music either amusing or, more likely, distracting.

But check out the footage, showing a juvenile humpback whale hanging out beneath a Trilogy Excursions boat for an extended period.

"This is what's known as a classic 'mugging,' where we can't move the boat until the whale decides to move on elsewhere," Trilogy stated Sunday on its Facebook page. "Sometimes, however, they just don't want to let you go..."

A crew member named Katie captured the underwater footage. Not sure who came up with the music.