Whale Tales – A day at sea

Posted by Michael Hilchey on Sep 29, 2014 | 0 comments

Greetings everyone! I just returned from an amazing private tour in California and while I hope to have a full trip report out soon, I wanted to share one experience from the trip that truly touched me. If you’ve never been on a pelagic (as I hadn’t before this trip) I hope this might inspire you to embark into the strange and beautiful world of the sea!

On the third morning of the trip, the group and I loaded up with Debi Shearwater and Shearwater Journeys onto our ship, the New Captain Pete, in Halfmoon Bay just south of San Francisco. We didn’t know it at the time but we would soon find ourselves on an incredible pelagic adventure that will certainly loom large in my memory until the day I pass from this wonderful world. We left the dock and slowly navigated our way through the stone walls of the harbour, calling out various terns and “rock pipers” through the early morning fog before we set sites on the horizon and began our journey into the open ocean. Thousands of Sooty Shearwaters, gulls, and other birds paraded behind us, hungrily chasing the slow trail of stale popcorn streaming from the back rail of the ship as we made our way west.The soft glassy water and overcast skies made for ideal viewing conditions as we began to wrack up more and more species for the trip. Common Murre fathers feeding their young chicks, Black-vented Shearwaters gliding effortlessly through the swells, a murrelet staying just out of sight in front of us, and the occasional Jaeger violently diving down form above to bully the gulls out of their popcorn breakfast; one by one these experiences went from exciting to simply background activity as we became accustomed to the watery world that we had entered.

By mid-morning however, things got a bit more interesting. Warm water from the coast of Mexico has invaded the northern California Coast this fall and with it has come some very interesting creatures. Now, for those of you who have not been on a trip with Debi Shearwater, you are missing out. She has been running pelagic tours for almost 40 years now and still manages to be the most enthusiastic (and loud) person on the boat! So when suddenly we found ourselves floating amongst an assortment of strange and wonderful plankton, Debi got loud! “WHAT IS THAT!?!?” rang out over the constant rumbling of the engine over and over again as she and the crew wrangled up some amazing invertebrates from the water. Sea elephants, jellyfish and by-the-wind sailors – strange translucent invertebrates that roam the ocean currents!

We spent a good while exploring these alien beings before the call of “ORCAS!!” came screaming across the deck from Debi on the bow! The boat quickly picked up and before you knew it we were face to face with a small pod of Orcas. Two or three females and an adorable young calf. The cetaceans were excitedly pulling apart the carcass of what appeared to be a seal of some sort. The adults seemed to be teaching the calf how to rip apart their kill and get to all the good parts! And the birds, now including several Black-footed Albatross, were enjoying the scraps. Several times the whales nearly hit the brave albatross as they frantically gulped up as much floating flesh as they could. At one point a very terrified Mola mola, a rather large bony fish, found shelter from the massive predators under our boat. The whales were quick to take notice and we found ourselves feet from spyhopping and feeding killer whales!!

Within minutes, our attention was again sidetracked, this time by two Blue Whales! The enormity of these animals is hard to grasp even when they are just a few short meters away! My group and I couldn’t get over how lucky we were to see them. I think nearly everyone has been fascinated by Blue Whales since the age of 5 when we are first told of the biggest creature to ever have lived on our planet!

Our next big excitement came to us in the form of a small glass bottle. Floating in the swells, was an old Taiwanese liquor bottled that had become a world of it’s own! Attached the neck of the bottle was a mass of beautiful blue and orange Acorn Barnacles! And once the self-contained ecosystem was brought on board we discovered a whole host of fishes, crabs and other creatures living amongst the barnacles! I wonder how long this mini-universe had been floating in the ocean and where it had come from before we discovered it? You never know what you might find out there!

Soon enough we were headed back to port, tired and thrilled at what an amazing day it had been. But the thrills just kept coming at us and before we could catch our breath the words “TROPICBIRD” rang out across the boat! A brief and distant look, but none-the-less a Red-billed Tropicbird was flying overhead! Wow! And soon afterwards a Guadalupe Murrelet was spotted! This was the first time in over 15 years that this species had been found in northern California! Could it get any better?

The short answer to that is yes, it can and it most definitely did. For me, the most amazing part of the day came at close of our trip, a finale so to speak. As we came into Halfmoon Bay I spotted a distant Humpback Whale from the bow of the boat. The young whale was seemingly waving hello to us as he repeatedly stuck his lateral fins out of the water and smacked them hard against the surface of the water. We floated up to within a few meters of the animal and watched it play in the water, slapping the surface, rolling on it’s back and reveling gracefully in the deep blue water. After several minutes, our third whale species of the day took a final fin slap before diving into the dark water below. At this point I was officially beside myself! I was even having trouble talking. I had turned around to share celebrations with my boat mates when I heard a loud whooshing noise behind me. I turned around and my brain nearly exploded as I saw the humpback whale rising up out of the ocean in a full breach no more than 15 feet away from my face! The whale crashed back into the water as quickly and powerfully as it had emerged and I was left speechless with tears running down my cheeks at what I had just witnessed. In that moment, the beauty, power, and intelligence of that animal was fully engrossing. Every single soul on that boat was completely taken in by the raw experience of that interaction! It was one for the most sobering and inspiring moments of my life and will never be forgotten! We then headed back to dock. It took me several hours to regain my composure and even now, just the memory of that animal brings a feeling of awe and compassion to my heart. What an incredible day!

You never know what you’ll find at sea, or what might find you.

– Michael