Sooty shearwaters are back!
These marvelous travelers from the sub-Antarctic fly 40,000 miles a year. We enjoy their exquisite gliding all summer long. Captain Kate Spencer explains what we're seeing.
We love seabirds and seabirders along with all the incredible mammal watching on Monterey Bay.
Join us!
Online tickets & info: www.fastraft.com
Fast Raft Ocean Safaris in Monterey Bay, California
Baird's beaked whales seen just outside Monterey Bay on June 9th, 2023. We spent about an hour hanging out with two different pods, with a third about a mile distant. https://fastraft.com
We had an absolutely incredible day of whale watching yesterday, spending over an hour sitting on the water watching about 30 Baird's beaked whales - the largest of the beaked whales.
These, like all beaked whales, are deep-diving squid eaters, toothed whales like dolphins and sperm whales. Their smaller relatives, Cuvier's beaked whales, have been tracked on dives nearly 10,000 feet deep!
One of the groups moved off about a mile away, but two remained within a few hundred yards of us, doing roughly 12 minute dives.
In many years, no whale watching boats on Monterey Bay see them. This year, there have been three days of sightings that I'm aware of, and two of them, including yesterday, involved them being easy to watch and doing relatively short dives (12 minutes is much shorter than 45 minutes!), probably because they found and ample amount of squid relatively close to the surface, by their standards.
A youngster can be seen poking its head out momentarily at about the 50 second mark.
And as you can see from the video, conditions were perfect!
In the past week, we've been seeing dolphins, killer whales, and of course humpback whales.
You can browse availabilities and book at https://fastraft.com
California sea lions hang out on the buoy near Moss Landing Harbor. Come see!
Tickets & info:
www.fastraft.com
Last Sunday on our extended six-hour trip we followed this humpback whale for 2.5 miles in the northwest part of Monterey Bay. The entire time it was slapping the water with its pectoral flippers, swimming on its side, its back, then turning to blow and starting the whole sequence again. We watched for an hour!
It was a bit lumpy out so this short video I'm sharing is a bit jerky, but still fun, I think.
As always, availabilities can be found, and tickets bought, at https://fastraft.com.
Three young humpback whales surface feeding on krill nonstop today. Lots of humpbacks all over Monterey Bay. Sublime conditions.
Join us! www.fastraft.com
Killer whales (orcas) were back in Monterey Bay today! They killed a gray whale calf sometime between late yesterday afternoon and very early this morning, Thursday, May 4th. There were about fifteen of them!
They were unusually scarce in April but have visited on six of the last nine days.
Here's a short video showing one group passing by our boat mid-morning. The male with the tall dorsal fin that is bent over at the top is known as "Bumper", because as a calf he gained a reputation for bumping boats with his head!
We're going out to tomorrow at 8 AM and have three seats open! Book your tickets at https://fastraft.com.
Short video of a sea otter mom and her still fuzzy-wuzzy pup. The pup is still entirely dependent on mom's milk, so only mom is foraging for food.
A wintering humpback in Monterey Bay, California
Listen to these Risso's dolphins vocalizing and clicking!
Photographer Don and Captains Kate and Kaelyn took the Fast Raft out for a crew joy ride on Tuesday, and were captivated by these boisterous dolphins.
We've been mostly off the water since November, when we replaced the outboard powerheads, did some other work, and after getting the boat back in early December enjoyed running a few whale watching trips before running head on into the atmospheric river's load of wind, rain, flooding, plagues, frogs, and toads and were stuck on land.
You may've read about it. Much of California was a mess.
But today was glorious, so the three of us took the boat out and among other things got out our hydrophone and listened to some of the 200 or so Risso's dolphins we found out in the Bay.
Captain Kate is holding the hydrophone and speaker, Captain Kaelyn took the video, and Don was at the wheel as we drifted with engines off.
Enjoy!
As always, tour details and online tickets are at https://fastraft.com
Risso's dolphins, with Casper the famous albino, on a beautiful sunny day,
Good morning after a storm on Monterey Bay
Here's a short video of killer whales seen last week. We found them on the morning trip, just about a mile from our departure point at Moss Landing Harbor. By the afternoon they were a few miles away but still hunting sea lions. The matriarch of this group is known as "Aurora" and the family is known for visiting boats and blowing raspberries!
Be sure to watch to the end for a nice surprise!
This is the last whale watching post you'll see from us for awhile, because our boat is getting new powerheads for the outboards! The current ones have the automobile equivalent of between about 175,000-200,000 miles on them and while they are still running OK, we don't want to risk having to replace them during next summer's busy season.
We'll be back in the water by Thanksgiving weekend and should be putting up more trips as the date gets closer. Currently we are planning to run trips the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
We've also put up an initial schedule for next spring, summer and fall and will be adding January and February trips very soon.
Please visit https://fastraft.com for currently scheduled availabilities and to book. If you'd like to ask for a date that's not currently on the schedule, feel free to e-mail us at [email protected]!
