This is a late report for the Shearwater Journey's pelagic trip September 22, 2008 from Monterey Bay. On rare occasions, a marine mammal sighting will eclipse any seabird sighting. This was the case on September 22.
The singular most exciting event was watching six KILLER WHALES, repeatedly tossing a COMMON DOLPHIN sky high some 30-50 feet in the air as they chased, and hunted it! On some of our previous trips, we had seen a mother/calf pair of common dolphins hanging around Cannery Row. They had been reported there for weeks. It is unusual in that common dolphins are usually very gregarious, traveling in herds of hundreds, if not thousands off southern California. Recently, we saw this pair off Point Joe, and away from the nearshore protection (?) of Cannery Row. I do not know if these dolphins were the specific individuals that the killer whales killed on this day. But, it was quite spectacular to see the little dolphin flying through the air, as well as the killer whales also flying sky high! In the end, the killer whales did kill the dolphin, although this was difficult to see. They continued to hang around Monterey Bay for many weeks, mostly near Moss Landing. The common dolphins have not been seen since this day.
I've seen Orcas hunt and kill many creatures— blue sharks, sea lions, rhinoceros auklets, and elephant seals. (For a look at an image that I shot of an orca tossing a young elephant seal in the air on a Shearwater Journey's trip to the Farallon Islands, see Hadoram Shirihai's A Field Guide to the Marine Mammals of the World, page 74). In fact, it was on a Shearwater Journey's May Monterey Bay trip in the 1980's when the very first hunting by killer whales of a young gray and its mother, was ever photographed. At my insistence, a hydrophone was dropped overboard to record the first sounds of killer whales in Monterey Bay! (These sounds can be heard on the DVD, Through the Seasons: An Introduction to the Seabirds and Marine Mammals of Monterey Bay). After nearly three hours of stalking the young, male gray whale, the killer whales finally drowned it. This later became popularized by National Geographic after they videotaped subsequent kills on Monterey Bay.
Killer whales have long been a subject of interest for me. So much so that, beginning in 1978, I collected images from the the photographers who ventured forth on Shearwater Journey's trips from Monterey, Bodega Bay and other ports off central California. Beginning in 1984, I encouraged the Monterey party boat skippers to collect images of killer whales, too. Shearwater Journeys donated hundreds of boat trips that provided a platform of opportunity for graduate students to obtain marine mammal sightings and photograph killer whales. Through these efforts, we were able to obtain images from more than forty people, spanning 19 years to be included in a photo catalogue of killer whales of California and western Mexico which was published in September 1997 by the U.S. Department of Comerce, NOAA. Thus, the many birders who participated in our trips contributed vastly to our current knowledge of killer whales.
You can see video footage shot by Manny Vara and hear the sounds of the participants on the September 22 trip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WufTyNMZNgw.
Well, of course we did see birds, too! The complete species list follows. Many thanks to the folks who joined us on this very exciting trip. The leaders were: David Vander Pluym, David Wimpfheimer, Luke Cole, Don Doolittle, Oscar Johnson, and Debra Shearwater. Lauren Harter graciously chummed.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2008 MONTEREY BAY:
PACIFIC LOON- 4
LOON sp.- 1
WESTERN GREBE- 1
BLACK-FOOTED ALBATROSS- 5
PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATER- 225
BULLER'S SHEARWATER- 28
SOOTY SHEARWATER- 280
SOOTY/SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER- 2
WILSON'S STORM-PETREL- 4
ASHY STORM-PETREL- 300
BLACK STORM-PETREL- 15
BROWN PELICAN- 70
BRANDT'S CORMORANT- 700
PELAGIC CORMORANT- 3
SURF SCOTER- 14
BLACK TURNSTONE- 8
SURFBIRD- 1
RED-NECKED PHALAROPE- 48
SOUTH POLAR SKUA- 2
POMARINE JAEGER- 21
PARASITIC JAEGER- 5
JAEGER sp.- 1
HEERMANN'S GULL- 60
CALIFORNIA GULL- 30
WESTERN GULL- 100
ELEGANT TERN- 100
COMMON TERN- 1
COMMON/ARCTIC TERN- 1
FORSTER'S TERN- 1
COMMON MURRE- 110
PIGEON GUILLEMOT- 1
RHINOCEROS AUKLET- 80
SEA OTTER- 6
CALIFORNIA SEA LION- +
HARBOR SEAL- +
HUMPBACK WHALE- 10
KILLER WHALE- 6
COMMON DOLHIN- 1 or 2
RISSO'S DOLPHIN- 17
OCEAN SUNFISH- 3
BLUE SHARK- 1
Shearwaters forever,
Debra
Debra Shearwater
Shearwater Journeys, Inc.
PO Box 190
Hollister, CA 95024
831.637.8527
www.shearwaterjourneys.com
*Antarctica, South Georgia, & The Falkland Islands, January 5-24, 2010*
Shearwater Journeys' Exclusive Charter
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