[CINC] Whale-watching Sat. Jan. 3 aboard the Vanguard

[maria ornelas]

Hi Naturalists, 

AM Trip:
5 Gray whales 
Megapod Common dolphins, ~ 1000
35 Passengers 
Crew: Cptn. Anthony, Mike and DeDe
Naturalists: Scott Cruzzo & Maria Ornelas

PM Trip:
5 Gray whales
68 Passangers
Crew- same as AM
Naturalists - same as AM

The morning trip was sunny, calm, and comfortably warm. All passengers were locals except for a young adult couple from Singapore. The passengers enjoyed the Sea Lions on the buoy near Oil Platform Gail. The real show though, started around 10:30 when the  mega pod of Commons put on a spectacular show. The 5 Grays concluded a most enjoyable morning trip by diving and displaying their beautiful flukes.

The afternoon trip was a bit crowded, but as pleasurable, though the wind started picking up, and by the time we got back to harbor it was quite cold. Nevertheless, we were rewarded with a picture-perfect sunset as we returned to harbor. Anyway, at around 3 pm, we encountered the 5 Grays scattered around the same area as in the morning trip. Some of these whales may have been the ones sighted in the morning, since a couple of them were also covered with the same whitish barnacles we had observed on the AM whales. Overall, we had a great-fun day. Thank you Captain Anthony and crew. 
  
maria at rasnowpeak.com

         \ /                      \ / 
´¯'·.¸¸..><((((º>.·´¯'·.¸¸.·´¯'·.¸><((({º>¸.·´¯'·.¸. ,. 
         / \                      / \






-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.rain.org/pipermail/channel_islands_naturalist_corps/attachments/20130105/f6e5de74/attachment.html>