Whale watching
By Megan Mueller (05/31/14 18:47:35)
I went whale watching on a sail boat on May 18th. We saw seven grey whales (5 adults and 2 babies) not far off shore roughly around the mesa area of Santa Barbara. Apparently, this is uncharacteristically late in the season to see whales.
The captain had heard that there were a bunch of whales right around the corner from the harbor. So we hurried over to the area where they were last spotted. I scanned the water looking for any sign of movement and after about 10 minutes we saw water erupt into the air from what we could assume was the whales blow hole about 100 yards from us. We began to get closer to the whales and ended up spending 2 hours following behind them up the coast. We approached cautiously but over the course of the afternoon, seemed to get more comfortable with them and vice versa. They swam quite close to the boat on a couple occasions. The energy on the sail boat was electric. We were mostly quite and dedicated to looking at the water. The whales would submerge during periods of the time and reappear to gasps and laughter on the boat. Dolphins also appeared to be swimming with the whales for a period time. One of my most distinct memories of the day was the sound of water exiting the blow hole. The human equivalent would be trying to exhale forcefully through the closed lips of your mouth times 1000. The whales were such a physical presence. At one point a whale breeched its entire head out of the water. Basically appearing to be vertical in its orientation. I saw a whale's face!
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By Megan Mueller (05/31/14 18:47:35)
I went whale watching on a sail boat on May 18th. We saw seven grey whales (5 adults and 2 babies) not far off shore roughly around the mesa area of Santa Barbara. Apparently, this is uncharacteristically late in the season to see whales.
The captain had heard that there were a bunch of whales right around the corner from the harbor. So we hurried over to the area where they were last spotted. I scanned the water looking for any sign of movement and after about 10 minutes we saw water erupt into the air from what we could assume was the whales blow hole about 100 yards from us. We began to get closer to the whales and ended up spending 2 hours following behind them up the coast. We approached cautiously but over the course of the afternoon, seemed to get more comfortable with them and vice versa. They swam quite close to the boat on a couple occasions. The energy on the sail boat was electric. We were mostly quite and dedicated to looking at the water. The whales would submerge during periods of the time and reappear to gasps and laughter on the boat. Dolphins also appeared to be swimming with the whales for a period time. One of my most distinct memories of the day was the sound of water exiting the blow hole. The human equivalent would be trying to exhale forcefully through the closed lips of your mouth times 1000. The whales were such a physical presence. At one point a whale breeched its entire head out of the water. Basically appearing to be vertical in its orientation. I saw a whale's face!
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