A photographer in California’s Monterey Bay has captured video footage showing an anchovy flying from the mouth of a lunge-feeding humpback whale.
A photographer in California’s Monterey Bay has captured slow-motion footage showing an anchovy flying from the mouth of a lunge-feeding humpback whale.
Slater Moore Photography posted the footage to Instagram on Monday along with the description, “The luckiest anchovy in the world.” He put the amusing scene to Katy Perry’s “The One That Got Away.”
Moore captured a remarkable moment considering that humpback whales typically lunge through massive schools of fish and can capture thousands in one gulp, yet only the one anchovy appears in the footage.
Passengers aboard a California whale-watching vessel on Tuesday watched in wonder as four humpback whales breached in unison while feeding on small fish.
Passengers aboard a California whale-watching vessel on Tuesday watched in wonder as four humpback whales breached in unison while feeding on small fish.
The accompanying footage, captured by Johanna Domise of Monterey Bay Whale Watch, shows the whales engaging in vertical lunge-feeding behavior.
The vessel was in neutral when the dramatic close encounter occurred, according to the company, which exclaimed on Facebook:
“Humpback whales can eat up to 2 million calories per day! In this video, you can see the whale’s throat pleats expanding, taking in up to 5,000 gallons of water while feeding!”
Humpback whales, which can weigh more than 50 tons, are commonly encountered in Monterey Bay. They’re known for their spectacular breaches, close approaches, and the voracious manner by which they feed.
It’s not rare to capture vertical lunge feeding on video, but it’s not common to capture footage showing four whales exhibiting this behavior at almost precisely the same moment.
For the second time this year an orca family group has been documented playing with sea jellies in California’s Monterey Bay.
For the second time this year an orca family group has been documented playing with sea jellies in California’s Monterey Bay.
This rarely observed behavior – transient orcas, or killer whales, prey almost exclusively on marine mammals – involved the same four orcas.
On Tuesday, on a trip run by Capt. Slater Moore, the orcas were encountered outside of Moss Landing.
“We watched them eat a couple of sea lions. Then as they traveled out of the bay one of the younger ones [tossed] a jellyfish in her mouth,” Moore wrote on Instagram.
Moore also joked: “I guess sea nettles taste like Jolly Ranchers?!?!”
Kate Cummings, owner of Blue Ocean Whale Watch, was aboard Moore’s boat and described the family group as “grabbing sea nettle jellies as they went,” after the sea lion predation.
Sea nettles are jellies (jellyfish) whose tentacles can span 10-plus feet. Stinging cells paralyze small prey items, which are carried by “mouthy-arms” to the jellies’ mouths, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Moore and Cummings told FTW Outdoors that the orcas seemed to be playing with and not preying upon the sea nettles.
“I don’t think they swallowed any of the jellies,” Moore said.
The four orcas are cataloged as the CA202s by the California Killer Whale Project. They include a mom and her three offspring.
The same rarely encountered group – the mother is nicknamed Smiley because of a distinct marking in her saddle – was documented playing with sea nettles on Feb. 6.
Passengers and crew aboard a Monterey Bay Whale Watch vessel watched as two of the orca siblings carried what might have been the same sea nettle at different times in the bay.
Tory Kallman captured footage of the oldest sibling (a male) swimming behind a GoPro camera with the sea nettle dangling from his chin.
Capt. Nancy Black, owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch and co-founder of the California Killer Whale Project, told FTW Outdoors that the orcas seemed to be playing with the jelly “like a dog plays with a ball.”
Black also said that these particular orcas might simply enjoy the stinging sensation generated by tentacles touching their tongues.
But the epic shot – showing Moore dwarfed by the towering fluke of one of the whales – was snapped by the captain of a nearby vessel.
Top two images courtesy of Tim Zoliniak
Capt. Tim Zoliniak of Sea Goddess Whale Watching captured the extraordinary image atop this post and another showing Moore and a partial fluke as the whale dipped beneath the surface.
“We had about 100 people on board and they were pretty vocal and excited,” Zoliniak told FTW Outdoors. “After the whales were done with Slater they spent a few minutes with us.”
Moore said his engine was not running throughout the encounter – in accordance with NOAA Fisheries guidelines – and Zoliniak said he tried to maintain a 100-yard distance (never easy with friendly whales).
Humpback whales are actively feeding on anchovies in Monterey Bay and their lunge-feeding behaviors can be spectacular.
Image courtesy of Slater Moore
But Moore told FTW Outdoors that the two whales that mugged for him were simply curious and playful. “They circled my boat for about a half-hour,” he said. “They kept going under my boat then to the back and front and just dancing around.”
He was shooting in video mode and shared his footage via Instagram (posted below).
“I was on my way in from a ‘slower’ day of whale watching, lots of whales just not a lot of active behavior and then everything changed,” he wrote. “This whale’s fluke was towering over me!”
Moore said his wide-angle lens “did not do [the encounter] justice.” But he’s undoubtedly thankful that Zoliniak was positioned to help immortalize the moment.
Followers of the whale-watching company in Moss Landing, Calif., immediately recognized the dropping as being similar in appearance to the peculiar-looking Mola mola.
“Cut the material off and sell it on eBay for 1M,” reads one of dozens of comments.
Another echoed the sentiment: “Put some resin on it and make it into jewelry.”
Mola mola, which roam the oceans slurping sea jellies and other small prey, can measure 10 feet and weigh up 5,000 pounds. They’re the world’s heaviest bony fish and among the most easily recognizable fish species.
Cummings told For The Win Outdoors that she noticed the shape of the gull’s dropping as she was removing the flybridge cover from one of her boats.
Generic Mola mola/Wikimedia Commons
“It was immediate,” she said. “I’d be embarrassed about turning this into news if it wasn’t so uncanny.”
Because the fish are so goofy looking and docile, sightings are cherished by boaters as they search for whales and other marine mammals.
Reads another comment on Cummings’ Facebook page: “I want a bird to do this to me!”
A California photographer who shared some of his most spectacular whale images Thursday let his followers in on an intriguing secret.
A California photographer who shared some of his most spectacular whale images Wednesday let his followers in on an intriguing secret.
Doug Croft, who works for Blue Ocean Whale Watch out of Moss Landing in Monterey Bay, confessed that the images accompanying his Facebook post were not captured from either of the vessel’s two decks – but from its restroom.
“When I’m deck boss, I spend my time on the main deck [with passengers],” Croft wrote. “When I’m on the boat for fun, I spend a lot of time below deck, in the head. The porthole in the bathroom severely restricts field-of-view, but the low-to-the-water perspective more than makes up for it.”
The image atop this post was captured in April 2019, when a 40-ton humpback whale breached only 15 yards from the stern of a small boat as its captain trolled for salmon. The massive cetacean fell backwards, away from the fortunate angler.
The second image, showing surface-feeding humpbacks close to the coast, won the 2018 NOAA Get Into Your Sanctuary Photo Contest. The third, showing a lone breaching humpback whale in a graceful arch, was displayed in the State Capitol in Sacramento and featured in Outdoor California Magazine.
Croft allowed For The Win Outdoors to feature his images in this post.
Regulars aboard Blue Ocean’s vessel, High Spirits, know to bring their cameras into the head while answering nature’s call.
Kate Cummings, captain and naturalist, told For The Win Outdoors that the narrow porthole affords a unique perspective because it’s so low to the water.
“It’s also more satisfying when you nail a shot from the head, considering the added challenge of shooting through such a small area. You also can’t beat the comical bragging rights.”
Croft’s Facebook post generated several comments, including one that he jokingly wrote: “If I were designing a whale-watch boat, it would have multiple bathroom windows.”
High Spirits is a 60-foot twin-deck vessel that’s presently running with limited loads, in compliance with COVID-19 restrictions.
Humpback whales, along with a vast array of other marine mammal species, are commonly spotted in Monterey Bay.
Tiger Woods and TGR Design to build short par-3 course at Pebble Beach Golf Resorts to replace Peter Hay Golf Course
Tiger Woods and his TGR Design firm on Thursday released plans to transform the Peter Hay Golf Course at Pebble Beach Resorts in California.
Woods and his team will build a nine-hole par-3 course with holes ranging in length from 47 to 106 yards. The total length will be 670 yards. They also will build a 20,000-square-foot putting green and plans include a new food and beverage venue with a large outdoor seating area.
The short course will be between the Pebble Beach Pro Shop and the Golf Academy, just a few hundred yards from the famed 18th green of Pebble Beach Golf Links.
The plans for Tiger Woods’ redesign of the Peter Hay Golf Course at Pebble Beach Resorts. Photo courtesy of Pebble Beach Company
Woods said his design philosophy for the short course will focus on playability, creativity and fun for any golfer, including families and those new to the game. The result will feature dramatic movement with the terrain, plus four holes playing directly toward Carmel Bay to capitalize on the long views of the water. Each hole will be distinct from the previous course.
“Everyone who plays this golf course is going to enjoy the playability of it,” Woods said in the press release. “Golfers will have the choice to play nearly any club off most tees and around the greens, which will make them think and channel their creativity. It will also play differently from day to day depending on the tee and hole locations and wind direction. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I can’t wait to play it.”
With one exception, the length of each hole will correspond with a significant year in Pebble Beach’s history, and plaques on tee boxes will tell those stories. The exception will be the second hole, a replica of the stellar, seaside par-3 seventh hole on Pebble Beach Golf Links.
“Pebble Beach is such an iconic golf destination, we want guests to feel the entirety of that spirit when they play this course,” Woods said in the press release. “We also know not everyone who comes to Pebble Beach will have a chance to play the U.S. Open course, so we wanted to create the opportunity for all visitors to experience one of its most famous holes.”
The course is scheduled to open in the spring of 2021.
“We are thrilled to elevate the quality of our short course to a level consistent with our other world-class golf courses,” Bill Perocchi, CEO of Pebble Beach Company, said in the release. “You can see the genius of Tiger Woods and TGR Design come to life when you walk the site, the way it all fits together. I expect all aspects of this new facility will be very popular for junior golf events, resort golfers, outings, resident hang-outs and everything in between.”
Woods and his firm have built several courses including Bluejack National in Texas, which ranks No. 47 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses in the United States, and El Cardonal at Diamante in Mexico, which ranks No. 25 on Golfweek’s Best list of courses in Mexico and the Caribbean. He also is building Payne’s Valley at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, 13 holes of which are currently open for preview play.
A photographer in California’s Monterey Bay has captured an image showing a remarkable closeup of a humpback whale’s face and eye.
The most compelling whale images tend to show the majestic leviathans in full breach, lunge-feeding on schooling fish, or revealing their flukes.
But last Thursday a vastly different image was captured in California’s Monterey Bay by Eric Austin Yee, showing a remarkable closeup of a humpback whale’s face and eye.
Eric Austin Yee/Blue Ocean Whale Watch
“A curious humpback whale with its eye wide open doing some people watching,” Yee, who was with Blue Ocean Whale Watch, wrote for his Facebook description.
Or the billed creatures – one with what looks like a duck’s head – positioned in front of the eye.
“I think this is my favorite photo of a humpback that I have ever seen,” another commenter wrote. “Like, I want this in full print on my wall.”
Yee was working as a naturalist aboard the High Spirits, which was returning to port at Moss Landing when humpback whales were spotted.
Kate Cummings/Blue Ocean Whale Watch
“We were heading home but couldn’t resist turning around to a group of humpbacks that originally was two humpbacks, but became four,” Yee told For The Win Outdoors.
The whales swam to the boat after it had been idled, allowing Yee to capture the closeup, and Capt. Kate Cummings to capture her own images of the same whale, as well as video showing three of the whales engaged in “friendly” behavior alongside the vessel. (Images and video accompany this post.)
Cummings said the whale photographed by Yee stood out because of its extensive white markings, especially along its throat pleats.
Schulman-Janiger agreed with Cummings that they were likely part of a skin disease, but the whale seemed as playful and active and as the others and did not seem bothered by the skin condition.
Cummings posted her video to Facebook along with this description:
“Incredible experience today with friendly humpback whales! Three whales spent nearly a half hour circling and rolling around the boat and getting super close! One whale got a little too close and swiped the side of the boat with its flukes when it was twisting! For a whale, it was a gentle tap.”
Yee said he was shooting from the upper deck with an 80- to 200-millimeter lens.
