Whalewatch Season Begins

It's the beginning of the 2012-2013 whalewatch season here in southern California. For us whalewatch naturalists it's time to go on board the Voyager and, with her crew, take passengers for a three-hour-long cruise out into Santa Monica Bay to see the marine life. From the last week of December through April we go out to look for the whales blues, fins, and grays; common, bottlenose, Risso's, and Pacific white-sided dolphins; Dall's porpoise; sea lions and harbor seals; gulls, brown pelicans; auklets; cormorants; grebes; scoters; shearwaters -- more birds than I can think of right now.

But the very first whalewatch trip of the season, on the day after Christmas, is for us naturalists only. It's to introduce the newest whalewatch naturalists on what they can expect to see and do while on the boat. Unfortunately, the weather this year conspired against us. Overnight it had rained, and after the storm had passed it was breezy and cold. A small-craft advisory had been issued for rough seas, so there was little chance of us going out past the breakwater and into open water. We had to settle for a very short up and back in the small marina.

Many of us had brought our cameras, so it was disappointing that we were denied the chance to photograph any whales that could be out there. But I tried to look for something to photograph, and it was towards the end of our short jaunt that I got this picture of a female California sea lion perched atop a buoy:

Then yesterday afternoon I had a whalewatch trip to do. This time the weather was perfect: bright, sunny skies, little wind, relatively flat seas. Because there had been fin whales sighted on the morning cruise it was planned to go back there for my afternoon trip. But once past the breakwater the plans were changed because there was a gray whale sighting just a few miles out. We found and followed it and possibly another whale heading south and rounding the peninsula. By the time we got to our turn-around spot at Point Vicente there were five gray whales all around us, although they were not visible all at once. It was a good show for the passengers.

Before we turned around and headed north for home we spied numerous small splashes on the horizon, getting progressively closer. They could only be dolphin. We steamed a bit in their direction, but then put our stern to them as the pod of common dolphin overtook us. Many of them passed on either side of the boat, but there were a number of them that chose to bow-ride. This pleased the passengers immensely: many of them gathered on either side of the bow to lean over the railing and watch the dolphins just below the surface.

It is not often that I have seen common dolphin leap high out of the water. And not having photographed dolphin in several months I was completely out of practice. Of all the pictures I took, this one is probably the best:

You can see more common dolphin in the background. They are such fun to watch -- I never get tired of seeing them.

As the season goes on I hope to get better shots than this. There have been orcas in these waters the past month (the latest sighting was on New Year's) and I'm hoping I'll be lucky enough to see them this season.

(Shot with the Nikon D600 using the 70-200mm VR zoom at 180mm; shutter-priority, with shutter speed set to 1/500 second; camera set aperture to f/4 at ISO 100; auto white balance; normal JPG.)

Whale-watching on the equinox

Yesterday was the vernal equinox. It also happened to be the first time I went out on a whalewatch trip as a naturalist this season. The northbound gray whale migration is now well underway. According to the whale census-takers at Point Vicente there were 19 whales seen yesterday, all of them northbound.

I got an e-mail that there were a number of open spots to be filled by naturalists for several whalewatch trips. So I volunteered to take the afternoon trip as one of two naturalists aboard. As it turned out, we ended up with four. Sherry (the other naturalist) and I walked up and down the decks talking to the passengers about what they might see during the cruise.

It was a beautiful, sunny day and we hoped to see whales out in open waters. Instead, we got a call telling us that three whale calves were spotted in the kelp beds near Rocky Point. So we steered in that direction and soon spotted one whale on our port side. We hove-to just outside the kelp beds and watched as what turned out to be a pair of whales slowly swam in and out of the kelp.

I was so preoccupied with getting a shot of the whale that I didn't even notice until I had downloaded the photo that a harbor seal had surfaced with a fish in its mouth (the seal is the dark gray object closer to the camera than the lighter-grayish, elongated shape of the whale's rostrum).

Then the whale turned around and headed away from shore:

Only to turn around again and head back towards shore:

At this point we realized we were looking at two different whales. We were still dead in the water, engines idling, and it seemed that the whales appeared to be slowly getting closer to us. But then a motor yacht sped through the kelp beds and, I'm sure, spooked the whales.

We moved on to Point Vicente and were told of a fin whale nearby. We saw its blow several times before it dove and then reappeared north of us. In the meantime we were escorted by a small pod of common dolphin, which are always fun to photograph:

It was then time to head back. Overall I'd say it was a decent day of whale-watching.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 18-200mm zoom; shutter-priority, with shutter speeds varying from 1/500 to 1/1250 second; camera chose various apertures at ISO 400; auto white balance; matrix-metered; normal JPG.)

The whales and dolphins of December

The day after Christmas our daughter and I went on a whalewatch naturalist training cruise. The cruise introduces new whalewatch naturalists on what they may be asked to do on a cruise during the upcoming whalewatch season. These would include a "dock talk" (give a little lecture about what passengers may see during a cruise), speaking on the ship's microphone, and show pictures of various whales, dolphins, and other animals that live or pass through Santa Monica bay.

This year's trip was particularly amazing for the number of whales we saw during the three-hour-plus trip: 1 fin whale and 11 gray whales. This may be due to the record number of southbound gray whales seen this December. And you could not ask for better conditions under which to go on a whalewatch cruise: the sky was bright blue; the seas were calm; there was very little wind.

Within 45 minutes of our leaving the dock, and just two-and-a-half miles off the coast, we spotted a fin whale headed away from the coast. It first appeared close to our starboard side, then dove, and reappeared far on our port side. I was on the wrong side of the boat when it first appeared; I had to settle taking a few pictures when it reappeared:

 

I should note that we (and anyone else, for that matter) must not approach it and get closer than 100 yards; if it had approached us and we ended up being closer than that distance, that's permissible. So no chasing them in your jetski, kayak, pleasure craft, or whatever -- keep a respectful distance away.

We soon spotted pods of common dolphin ahead of us, so we steamed in their general direction. They will come and ride the boat's bow wave, or swim alongside.

To be honest, while one can't help but be impressed by a whale's size, dolphins (for me) are much more fun to watch. We noted that there appeared to be a large number of dolphins calves in these pods.

We headed south towards Point Vicente. Once there we saw a mother gray whale with her calf very close to shore where the Interpretive Center stands.

 

They were swimming south at a very leisurely pace. Knowing the characteristics of their swimming behavior, and provided you're close enough, you can easily get a picture of their flukes:

We motored just off Point Vicente for awhile looking for the next whale. At one point, there were so many common dolphin and gray whales around the boat that it was a problem trying to decide what animal to look at. We had a TV reporter, his cameraman, and press photographers from two different newspapers looking in all directions and taking it all in. Bernardo was interviewed by the TV reporter; the story was later broadcast on the 5pm news.

At this point it was time to turn around and head back to the dock...whereupon we shortly came across more common dolphin:

 

At the end of the trip we all agreed that it had been a fantastic way to start off the 2011-2012 whalewatch season. In the future I'll be posting more photos from the trips I take as a naturalist.

(Shot with the Nikon D300 using the 18-200mm zoom; shutter-priority mode; shutter speed set to 1/1250 second; matrix-metered; daylight white balance; normal JPG.)

Whale tales...err...tails

Last Tuesday I took two friends of ours from the UK for a whalewatch cruise aboard the catamaran Condor Express (located in Santa Barbara, CA). They had already been on the speedy boat last September when they last visited California and enjoyed it tremendously.

The seas off Santa Barbara have been flat and calm for some time this month; the skies had been sunny. While the seas remained calm on the day of our cruise, the skies went overcast during the night and on into the morning, as they usually do in southern California at this time of year. This makes for very flat lighting and little contrast between the sky, sea, and whales.

Within 45 minutes of leaving the harbor we were intercepted by hundreds of common dolphin:

Our first whale sightings occurred near the Painted Cave of Santa Cruz island:

followed by a sighting of a blue whale cow/calf pair:

Then, a humpback cow/calf pair showed up:

We trailed this pair for some minutes, but when they vanished we sailed west to the channel between Santa Cruz and San Miguel islands. Soon we were seeing blows and tail flukes from a number of whales to the west. Eventually we could see blows and flukes at all points of the compass -- we couldn't decide which whales to watch:

After an amazing two hours or so of watching these whales it was time to head back to Santa Barbara. We certainly got our money's worth.

As far as my camera settings go, I decided I wanted a shutter speed fast enough to prevent blurring because I was standing on the observation deck behind the wheelhouse (I eventually settled on 1/1250 sec.). I also added +0.7 exposure compensation because the whales were going to be too dark in such flat lighting. And I also switched my white balance to "cloudy" because with the overcast the pictures stood a good chance of being bluish. Even then, when I started post-processing these pictures in Lightroom I added more black to stretch out the histogram.

Remembering to check the camera before (and while) I photograph

Checking my camera to see how I have it set before I go photographing has saved me a lot of grief. But something I also need to do is to check it as I'm using it as well.

Case in point: Two days ago I went on an afternoon whalewatch cruise out of Redondo Beach, taking my Nikon D300 along with me. While we didn't see any Pacific gray whales during the three-hour-long cruise we did come across pods of several hundred common dolphin. I guessed I needed to add about +0.3 exposure compensation to lighten the dolphins since they'd be darker than the ocean if they jumped. I took over 150 pictures. When I previewed a few frames to see how they were coming out I noticed the majority of them were overexposed. Then I noticed that I had inadvertently set the exposure mode to center-weighted, rather than set to the usual matrix. Horrors! Fortunately I was able to compensate for the overexposure without looking too heavily post-processed.

So check your camera before you go, and while you are shooting. Here are a few frames from the cruise: