Blue Whales feeding
 

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:54:41 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:09:27 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:51:30 -0800, Jim wrote:

Went out yesterday to watch the whales feeding. I was told about this a
couple of days ago but didn't go until yesterday.

It was amazing. I've seen lots of whales, but never like this. They
are usually migrating, not feeding like these were.

There were a million sea birds, so many krill the sea turned silver.
The ocean sounded like it was carbonated. Then there were groups of
whales spouting as they cruised the surface feeding. No spectacular
diving with the flukes following it under, they just rolled on their
sides and ate their fill. My fish finder showed the sea to be a solid
mass of fish, hundreds of feet deep.

I've never seen so much sea life in one spot. There were several of
these spots, by the way. You could see that the whales were herding the
krill into the center of a big circle, a couple of miles across.

Must have looked like a scene out of whaling 150 years ago. You could
almost imagine the mast head lookout on a whaling ship seeing exactly
the same scene.

I've seen many whales, but they are usually cruising along, never like this.

Not my video, mine has to be edited, and there's a lot to edit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YtC-VagE4Y
Whales. Heavy duty. Like looking at the Grand Canyon.
Hard to comprehend what you're seeing.
Like flying into Vegas looking at the hotels out the window. You
haven't a clue as to their scale until you're on the street.

100 ft and how many tons? Holy crap.
It's easy to imagine their size when they surface right next to your
boat. I was getting a bit uneasy after see them busy feeding and not
necessarily watching out for me.

Talk about bad breath! And a lot of it.

Is there a law about proximity? Up here if you're caught getting
close the fines are meaningful.

What sort of bad breath? Anything to compare it to?

It's awesome that you had the opportunity. I know the feeling of
looking down into the water and seeing a big ship's propeller through
the haze. It's other worldly. Seeing animals that size must be
willies inducing.

There is a law about proximity, but the whale wasn't observing it.

Interestingly the boat that went right through the middle, between
whales, was a police boat.

Fish breath. Compared to a lot of dead fish, I'd guess.

Blue Whales feeding
 

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:36:57 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:54:41 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:09:27 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:51:30 -0800, Jim wrote:

Went out yesterday to watch the whales feeding. I was told about this a
couple of days ago but didn't go until yesterday.

It was amazing. I've seen lots of whales, but never like this. They
are usually migrating, not feeding like these were.

There were a million sea birds, so many krill the sea turned silver.
The ocean sounded like it was carbonated. Then there were groups of
whales spouting as they cruised the surface feeding. No spectacular
diving with the flukes following it under, they just rolled on their
sides and ate their fill. My fish finder showed the sea to be a solid
mass of fish, hundreds of feet deep.

I've never seen so much sea life in one spot. There were several of
these spots, by the way. You could see that the whales were herding the
krill into the center of a big circle, a couple of miles across.

Must have looked like a scene out of whaling 150 years ago. You could
almost imagine the mast head lookout on a whaling ship seeing exactly
the same scene.

I've seen many whales, but they are usually cruising along, never like this.

Not my video, mine has to be edited, and there's a lot to edit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YtC-VagE4Y
Whales. Heavy duty. Like looking at the Grand Canyon.
Hard to comprehend what you're seeing.
Like flying into Vegas looking at the hotels out the window. You
haven't a clue as to their scale until you're on the street.

100 ft and how many tons? Holy crap.
It's easy to imagine their size when they surface right next to your
boat. I was getting a bit uneasy after see them busy feeding and not
necessarily watching out for me.

Talk about bad breath! And a lot of it.

Is there a law about proximity? Up here if you're caught getting
close the fines are meaningful.

What sort of bad breath? Anything to compare it to?

It's awesome that you had the opportunity. I know the feeling of
looking down into the water and seeing a big ship's propeller through
the haze. It's other worldly. Seeing animals that size must be
willies inducing.

There is a law about proximity, but the whale wasn't observing it.

Interestingly the boat that went right through the middle, between
whales, was a police boat.

Fish breath. Compared to a lot of dead fish, I'd guess.

Why does the news that the police boat went right through the middle
not surprise me. Immediately thought of Lu Powell.

Hurry up and edit the video so we can see. Doesn't matter if it's not
Nat Geo standards, just a glimpse would be cool!

Blue Whales feeding
 

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:36:57 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:54:41 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:09:27 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:51:30 -0800, Jim wrote:

Went out yesterday to watch the whales feeding. I was told about this a
couple of days ago but didn't go until yesterday.

It was amazing. I've seen lots of whales, but never like this. They
are usually migrating, not feeding like these were.

There were a million sea birds, so many krill the sea turned silver.
The ocean sounded like it was carbonated. Then there were groups of
whales spouting as they cruised the surface feeding. No spectacular
diving with the flukes following it under, they just rolled on their
sides and ate their fill. My fish finder showed the sea to be a solid
mass of fish, hundreds of feet deep.

I've never seen so much sea life in one spot. There were several of
these spots, by the way. You could see that the whales were herding the
krill into the center of a big circle, a couple of miles across.

Must have looked like a scene out of whaling 150 years ago. You could
almost imagine the mast head lookout on a whaling ship seeing exactly
the same scene.

I've seen many whales, but they are usually cruising along, never like this.

Not my video, mine has to be edited, and there's a lot to edit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YtC-VagE4Y
Whales. Heavy duty. Like looking at the Grand Canyon.
Hard to comprehend what you're seeing.
Like flying into Vegas looking at the hotels out the window. You
haven't a clue as to their scale until you're on the street.

100 ft and how many tons? Holy crap.
It's easy to imagine their size when they surface right next to your
boat. I was getting a bit uneasy after see them busy feeding and not
necessarily watching out for me.

Talk about bad breath! And a lot of it.
Is there a law about proximity? Up here if you're caught getting
close the fines are meaningful.

What sort of bad breath? Anything to compare it to?

It's awesome that you had the opportunity. I know the feeling of
looking down into the water and seeing a big ship's propeller through
the haze. It's other worldly. Seeing animals that size must be
willies inducing.
There is a law about proximity, but the whale wasn't observing it.

Interestingly the boat that went right through the middle, between
whales, was a police boat.

Fish breath. Compared to a lot of dead fish, I'd guess.

Why does the news that the police boat went right through the middle
not surprise me. Immediately thought of Lu Powell.

Hurry up and edit the video so we can see. Doesn't matter if it's not
Nat Geo standards, just a glimpse would be cool!

Leaving the harbor, the same police boat passed to my port side,
throwing a huge wake. I had to take evasive action to not get rolled
very much.

They were not on a call, they came back out a few minutes later.

I'll put the video on my Youtube channel when I get it finished. It's
really difficult to get something of the scope of a pod of whales
feeding on video.

That's why people who can do it make a lot of money.

Blue Whales feeding
 

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:03:41 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:36:57 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:54:41 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:09:27 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:51:30 -0800, Jim wrote:

Went out yesterday to watch the whales feeding. I was told about this a
couple of days ago but didn't go until yesterday.

It was amazing. I've seen lots of whales, but never like this. They
are usually migrating, not feeding like these were.

There were a million sea birds, so many krill the sea turned silver.
The ocean sounded like it was carbonated. Then there were groups of
whales spouting as they cruised the surface feeding. No spectacular
diving with the flukes following it under, they just rolled on their
sides and ate their fill. My fish finder showed the sea to be a solid
mass of fish, hundreds of feet deep.

I've never seen so much sea life in one spot. There were several of
these spots, by the way. You could see that the whales were herding the
krill into the center of a big circle, a couple of miles across.

Must have looked like a scene out of whaling 150 years ago. You could
almost imagine the mast head lookout on a whaling ship seeing exactly
the same scene.

I've seen many whales, but they are usually cruising along, never like this.

Not my video, mine has to be edited, and there's a lot to edit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YtC-VagE4Y
Whales. Heavy duty. Like looking at the Grand Canyon.
Hard to comprehend what you're seeing.
Like flying into Vegas looking at the hotels out the window. You
haven't a clue as to their scale until you're on the street.

100 ft and how many tons? Holy crap.
It's easy to imagine their size when they surface right next to your
boat. I was getting a bit uneasy after see them busy feeding and not
necessarily watching out for me.

Talk about bad breath! And a lot of it.
Is there a law about proximity? Up here if you're caught getting
close the fines are meaningful.

What sort of bad breath? Anything to compare it to?

It's awesome that you had the opportunity. I know the feeling of
looking down into the water and seeing a big ship's propeller through
the haze. It's other worldly. Seeing animals that size must be
willies inducing.
There is a law about proximity, but the whale wasn't observing it.

Interestingly the boat that went right through the middle, between
whales, was a police boat.

Fish breath. Compared to a lot of dead fish, I'd guess.

Why does the news that the police boat went right through the middle
not surprise me. Immediately thought of Lu Powell.

Hurry up and edit the video so we can see. Doesn't matter if it's not
Nat Geo standards, just a glimpse would be cool!

Leaving the harbor, the same police boat passed to my port side,
throwing a huge wake. I had to take evasive action to not get rolled
very much.

They were not on a call, they came back out a few minutes later.

I'll put the video on my Youtube channel when I get it finished. It's
really difficult to get something of the scope of a pod of whales
feeding on video.

That's why people who can do it make a lot of money.

Understood.

Blue Whales feeding
 

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:51:30 -0800, Jim wrote:

There were a million sea birds, so many krill the sea turned silver.
The ocean sounded like it was carbonated. Then there were groups of
whales spouting as they cruised the surface feeding. No spectacular
diving with the flukes following it under, they just rolled on their
sides and ate their fill. My fish finder showed the sea to be a solid
mass of fish, hundreds of feet deep.

I wonder if they were doing their sonic/air bubble thing to herd the
fish and krill?

You didn't happen to hear a high pitched whistle did you? I've never
seen blue whales, but I've been given to understand that when you see
this, you can hear the high frequency sound waves.

One other question - did you see much hash on the sounder?

Krill will show up as hash on my Furuno. As to Whales, we had a Blue about
75' surface next to the 85' boat near the Coronado Islands off MX.
Fantastic sight. Looked like a submarine surfacing. I have had Humpbacks
about 35-40' surface next to my 21' boat. Scary when they blow and you are
not knowing they are next to you and it is quiet and you are drifting with
motor off.. Friend in her 32' boat had one surface under the boat. She
said that was scary. Boat tilted.

Blue Whales feeding
 

"jps" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:54:41 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:09:27 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:51:30 -0800, Jim wrote:

Went out yesterday to watch the whales feeding. I was told about this
a
couple of days ago but didn't go until yesterday.

It was amazing. I've seen lots of whales, but never like this. They
are usually migrating, not feeding like these were.

There were a million sea birds, so many krill the sea turned silver.
The ocean sounded like it was carbonated. Then there were groups of
whales spouting as they cruised the surface feeding. No spectacular
diving with the flukes following it under, they just rolled on their
sides and ate their fill. My fish finder showed the sea to be a solid
mass of fish, hundreds of feet deep.

I've never seen so much sea life in one spot. There were several of
these spots, by the way. You could see that the whales were herding
the
krill into the center of a big circle, a couple of miles across.

Must have looked like a scene out of whaling 150 years ago. You could
almost imagine the mast head lookout on a whaling ship seeing exactly
the same scene.

I've seen many whales, but they are usually cruising along, never like
this.

Not my video, mine has to be edited, and there's a lot to edit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YtC-VagE4Y
Whales. Heavy duty. Like looking at the Grand Canyon.
Hard to comprehend what you're seeing.

Like flying into Vegas looking at the hotels out the window. You
haven't a clue as to their scale until you're on the street.

100 ft and how many tons? Holy crap.

It's easy to imagine their size when they surface right next to your
boat. I was getting a bit uneasy after see them busy feeding and not
necessarily watching out for me.

Talk about bad breath! And a lot of it.

Is there a law about proximity? Up here if you're caught getting
close the fines are meaningful.

What sort of bad breath? Anything to compare it to?

It's awesome that you had the opportunity. I know the feeling of
looking down into the water and seeing a big ship's propeller through
the haze. It's other worldly. Seeing animals that size must be
willies inducing.

Even in Washington, the law is you can not approach the whales, but the
whales can approach you.

Blue Whales feeding
 

CalifBill wrote:
"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:51:30 -0800, Jim wrote:

There were a million sea birds, so many krill the sea turned silver.
The ocean sounded like it was carbonated. Then there were groups of
whales spouting as they cruised the surface feeding. No spectacular
diving with the flukes following it under, they just rolled on their
sides and ate their fill. My fish finder showed the sea to be a solid
mass of fish, hundreds of feet deep.
I wonder if they were doing their sonic/air bubble thing to herd the
fish and krill?

You didn't happen to hear a high pitched whistle did you? I've never
seen blue whales, but I've been given to understand that when you see
this, you can hear the high frequency sound waves.

One other question - did you see much hash on the sounder?

Krill will show up as hash on my Furuno. As to Whales, we had a Blue about
75' surface next to the 85' boat near the Coronado Islands off MX.
Fantastic sight. Looked like a submarine surfacing. I have had Humpbacks
about 35-40' surface next to my 21' boat. Scary when they blow and you are
not knowing they are next to you and it is quiet and you are drifting with
motor off.. Friend in her 32' boat had one surface under the boat. She
said that was scary. Boat tilted.


My fish finder screen was totally filled.

Blue Whales feeding- Video
 

Very hard to get a shot of a whale feeding on the surface. Did the best
I could with what I shot.

The large group;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJKIfPqCQVk

The smaller group to the north:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFHLX7SQhcU

And a short pelican flight, because I like pelicans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU5Px6QGdt4

Blue Whales feeding
 

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:33:26 -0800, "CalifBill"
wrote:


"jps" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:54:41 -0800, Jim wrote:

jps wrote:
On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:09:27 -0600, Vic Smith
wrote:

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:51:30 -0800, Jim wrote:

Went out yesterday to watch the whales feeding. I was told about this
a
couple of days ago but didn't go until yesterday.

It was amazing. I've seen lots of whales, but never like this. They
are usually migrating, not feeding like these were.

There were a million sea birds, so many krill the sea turned silver.
The ocean sounded like it was carbonated. Then there were groups of
whales spouting as they cruised the surface feeding. No spectacular
diving with the flukes following it under, they just rolled on their
sides and ate their fill. My fish finder showed the sea to be a solid
mass of fish, hundreds of feet deep.

I've never seen so much sea life in one spot. There were several of
these spots, by the way. You could see that the whales were herding
the
krill into the center of a big circle, a couple of miles across.

Must have looked like a scene out of whaling 150 years ago. You could
almost imagine the mast head lookout on a whaling ship seeing exactly
the same scene.

I've seen many whales, but they are usually cruising along, never like
this.

Not my video, mine has to be edited, and there's a lot to edit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YtC-VagE4Y
Whales. Heavy duty. Like looking at the Grand Canyon.
Hard to comprehend what you're seeing.

Like flying into Vegas looking at the hotels out the window. You
haven't a clue as to their scale until you're on the street.

100 ft and how many tons? Holy crap.

It's easy to imagine their size when they surface right next to your
boat. I was getting a bit uneasy after see them busy feeding and not
necessarily watching out for me.

Talk about bad breath! And a lot of it.

Is there a law about proximity? Up here if you're caught getting
close the fines are meaningful.

What sort of bad breath? Anything to compare it to?

It's awesome that you had the opportunity. I know the feeling of
looking down into the water and seeing a big ship's propeller through
the haze. It's other worldly. Seeing animals that size must be
willies inducing.

Even in Washington, the law is you can not approach the whales, but the
whales can approach you.

I'm not certain, but I think you may be obligated to take evasive
action if you're in their path. I'm going to look it up.

Blue Whales feeding- Video
 

On Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:42:05 -0800, Jim wrote:

Very hard to get a shot of a whale feeding on the surface. Did the best
I could with what I shot.

The large group;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJKIfPqCQVk

The smaller group to the north:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFHLX7SQhcU

And a short pelican flight, because I like pelicans:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU5Px6QGdt4

Damn! The birds are insane! Was there someone in a kyak out there
close in the first clip? I'd have a coronary event if I were that
close in a kyak...

Incredible to hear the breathing. I've heard orcas breathing, the
blue sounds much deeper.

Whereabouts were you?

Thanks for posting. Very cool.