Abe Borker

You never know what you’ll see on Monterey Bay. Today a dozen people from my department at UCSC came on the boat, and thankfully, despite early fog and big swells, it turned out to be a great trip. Early in the morning we were surrounded by Northern Fulmars as we headed into the fog. The fog seemed endless, but finally when we emerged, it was a nice sunny day on a relatively calm bay.

We had as many as three or four albatross follow the boat. And a few Flesh Footed Shearwaters came up the wake, one of my pelagic photo nemesis, in this case now conquered.

But the real highlight of the day was still to come. As we were heading in we came across a HUGE pod of Risso’s Dolphin. They are the largest species of cetacean to bear the name “dolphin”, as long as 12.5 feet, and as heavy as 1100lbs! It’s believed they eat primarily squid, and in stranded dolphins, researchers have found mantles of 12 foot long squid in their stomachs!

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite