Three boats departed the weekend of August 15th and 16th.
Saturdays naturalist trip reports included sighting over two dozen harbor porpoises near the Golden Gate Bridge, and bow-riding Dalls Porpoises for nearly 30 minutes as we headed to the Farallones. Our whale watch vessel the Salty Lady saw a collective 8 humpback whales, in three separate groups: one group of three adults fluking and traveling; another group of one adult, one juvenile and one calf, and a third group comprised of a cow-calf pair. Each sighting lasted for an average of 40 minutes. We also saw California sea lions, Steller sea lions, northern elephant seals and harbor seals. Bird sightings included Black-footed albatrosss, shearwaters, pelicans, cormorants, oystercatchers, phalaropes, jaegers, gulls, terns, murres, pigeon guillemots, murrelets, auklets, and tufted puffins.
Sunday’s trip was incredible. Our naturalist reported seeing fourteen humpback whales, on four different sightings, all apparently traveling, as we saw no feeding behaviors. We also saw a number of blue sharks, plus California sea lions and harbor seals. Bird sightings included pelicans, cormorants, murres, jaegers, gulls, auklets, and tufted puffins.
Naturalist led trips to the Farallon Islands and, weather permitting, the Continental Shelf depart from San Francisco on weekends June through November. Trips are filling up. Make your reservations today! Call (415) 474-3385. Or simply download our registration form and fax it to our office, (415) 474-3395. Or register via Acteva as offered at the bottom of the Farallon Islands schedule.
In cooperation with Cascadia Research, the Oceanic Society sponsors long-term humpack whale research in the Gulf of the Farallones -- Whalesproject:http://www.oceanic-society.org/whaleresearch. Many of the whale watching trips include dedicated whale field researchers. Armchair whale lovers may wish to check-out our Adopt-A-Whale programl. You can keep up with the life histories of individual Farallon Islands whales and learn their migration routes.