MBFE - Day 18 - Whales!!!

This day started out pretty like pretty much any other...breakfast at 7am, followed by student research teams going over their plans for the morning.  One team, Arianne, Kelly and Jessica, asked if I could go with them to Middle Cove, Cape Arago, so they could collect more hermit crabs for their project. No problem.

There was dense fog...so I didn't know what I'd be able to see aside from what's on the rocks...which is actually the cool stuff...so off we went.  After all, fog doesn't stop the intrepid hermit crab hunters Kelly, Jessica, and Arianne!

By the time we reached Cape Arago the fog had burned off and we had a beautiful day!

It takes some doing to get down to Middle Cove.  There is a steep unimproved trail, but down we went! (L-R: Arianne, Kelly, Jessica)

The team worked well and consistently in the field (L-R: Jesscia, stooped over, Arianne, Kelly)

While they worked I poked around this area...I'd never been down here before.  It's a pretty nice spot, mostly a boulder field with LOTS of mid to high intertidal zone species. I'd worked my way out to toward the water when I looked over to the south and thought I caught a glimpse of the vapor from whale spouts.  Sure enough!  That's when our morning adventure really began.  We worked our way around the south side of Middle Cove, negotiated several large boulders and surge channels and made our way out onto the point between Middle Cove and South Cove.  The whales were there!

We saw them spouting and pretty soon it became obvious that they were feeding.  These are gray whales and they migrate along the west coast of North America from their birthing grounds in Mexico in the south to their feeding grounds in Alaska.  We've been watching for them all trip and we finally spotted some.

As the photo below shows, there were two whales.  And as you can see in the photo below, they were quite close inshore...perhaps no more than 200 or 300 years away.

Sometimes they would extend a flipper above the water.  They were actually in pretty shallow water so it's possible that the flipped was above water when the whale rolled on its side to feed by taking a mouth full of sediment from the bottom of the seafloor.

All four of us had a chance to watch them for some time.  We texted the rest of the MBFE group and some of them came out, but sadly by the time they arrived the whales were gone. Interestingly, the fog started rolling back in when the whales disappeared. Maybe the whales will show up again on another day.  I sure hope so!  

We'll keep looking and you keep checking in.  

The MBFE adventure continues...