Early blue whales in California!
Close up of blue whale blowholes and blow Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
James S.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Hello everyone! It’s been a lot of fun out on the boats the last couple of weeks. Our new interns have all started and are doing an amazing job. Right away they were learning how to process and identify blue whales for Cascadia Research Collective. Nature decided not to let them ease into the program. But that makes it fun for our guests to get to see the largest animal that we know of to have ever existed on our planet. We’ve had great sightings of dolphins, humpbacks, blue whales, fin whales, and even caught sight of a minke! It’s been a while since our naturalists have been able to mention minke whales during the whale watches. Unfortunately the sighting was so quick we didn’t get a photo of it, just like those minkes to sneak away before we can snap any photos.
Working with our interns to start identifying our blue whale sightings we’ve learned that there were at least two different whales that made an early visit to our local waters to feed and wait before moving on to their next stop on their migration route. Blue whales that show up in our area during the summer are migrating from Alaskan waters down to Mexico and Central America. There is new evidence being collected from photo ID work that shows that there probably are many more blue whales becoming residents of certain regions and stop migrating.
Humpback whales are also in their migration from warmer winter waters to the cooler waters in the summer. There is a lot of research going into humpback migration, while we know the start and stop points for sub populations, new research is showing that humpback whales are changing routes and sub populations may overlap ranges with other humpback whale groups. So while we have a fairly clear idea of what the humpbacks are doing, the year to year variance in migration paths among individuals is greater than scientists previously thought.
If you have been waiting for the summer to get out on the water, it’s been a lot of fun and pretty active lately. It’s always a great day to get out on the water, but summer is our blue whale season and we’re hoping for a really good season since we’re long out of the El Nino event of 2015-2016. Our naturalists even reported that there were krill patches so large and dense that they could see the krill in the water a few days ago! Come on down to Long Beach and get a combo ticket for the Aquarium of the Pacific and Harbor Breeze Cruises.
See you on the water!
Blue whale fluke with distinct scrapes and marks Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale dorsal at surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Elephant seal spyhopping Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback whale rolling in kelp with its pectoral fin in the air Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback whale playing in kelp Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback whale with its chin and rostrum out of the water Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback whale fluke Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale tail stock and fluke just in the air Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback whale and rainbow blow Credit: Josh Meza-Fidalgo, Harbor Breeze Cruises
Humpback whale and rainbow blow Credit: Josh Meza-Fidalgo, Harbor Breeze Cruises
Large pod of common dolphins Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Common dolphin jumping out of the water Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale blow and blowholes Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback whale spy hop, possible chin slap Credit: Phil Wachovsky, Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback dorsal fin and knuckle ridge Credit: Phil Wachovsky, Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale dorsal at surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Rainbow whale blow Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Fin whale dorsal fin Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale dorsal at surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale fluke Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Bottlenose dolphin porpoising Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Large group of birds near protected area of the port Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Bottlenose dolphin bow riding in front of a container ship Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale blow Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Group of krill in the water Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Risso's dolphin at the surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Risso's dolphin at the surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback whale fluke Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Bottlenose dolphin at the surface of the water Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback whale fluke Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Humpback whale fluke with algae hanging off Credit: Phil Wachovsky, Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale dorsal side of the fluke Credit: Josh Meza-Fidalgo, Harbor Breeze Cruises
Humpback whale fluke Credit: Josh Meza-Fidalgo, Harbor Breeze Cruises