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Number 168 on my goal list was to see humpback whales vertically lunge feeding. What is lunge feeding, you ask? Sounds like what I would do at a dessert buffet. Lunge feeding is a behavior in which a whale moves forward at a high speed and takes in a large amount of both food (usually krill or bait fish) and water. This causes its ventral pleats to expand 162% in girth and 38% in length. The whale then closes its mouth and forces the water out through its baleen, which is made of keratin, like our fingernails and hair. The plates of baleen hang from the top of the whale’s mouth in lieu of teeth. The food gets caught in the baleen before the whale uses its large tongue to remove and swallow it.
Humpbacks are most often seen vertically lunge feeding in Alaska, but it has also been reported in Monterey, California, which is a much closer drive for me.
In March of 2021, my friend and I ventured to Monterey, hoping to spot not only orcas but some vertical lunge feeding. Unfortunately, the only thing vertical was me tossing my cookies over the side of the boat as we motored through eight-foot waves that made me feel like I was on the last trip of the S.S. Minnow. Fortunately, we did learn that lunge feeding was most often seen in June, July, and August in Monterey. And so, this July, armed with a prescription motion sickness patch, we ventured back to Monterey in search of not only lunge feeding but maybe the elusive orcas.
The neat thing about this road trip is that there are all kinds of darling towns to stop at along the way. The most notable stops are Harmony with its population of 18, Solvang with its Danish-style architecture, Cayucos with its Brown Butter Cookie Company, scenic Santa Barbara, and Moro Bay with its famous Moro Rock and a harbor that has adorable sea otters floating on their backs. Just north of the castle named San Simeon, there is an elephant seal rookery that never fails to entertain. Not only are there also roadside fresh produce stands that turn the trip into a visit to the farmers’ market; but the California coastline is a destination in and of itself that, having been to both, I can say rivals the Amalfi Coast. Don’t get me wrong, the Amalfi Coast is still a notch above the Cali coastline, but it’s a small notch.
Although it was a gray day, which is bad for photography, we quickly noticed that there was no shortage of humpback whales, porpoising sea lions, and sea birds feeding in the harbor. We stopped next to two whales that were feeding on bait fish, along with sea lions, and watched them for most of our trip. Yes, they were fluking (showing their tails when they would dive), and, yes, they were relatively close to the boat, but this was not something new to me and not something I would declare to be worth the six-hour drive. That is until one of the humpbacks mugged our boat!
When a friendly whale is curious and comes over to check you out, it’s referred to as a mugging. This humpback whale swam under our boat, poking its head up on the other side. Then it just sat there with its head out of the water, checking us out! It would dip back down for a second and then come up to look at us again! This went on for probably ten to fifteen minutes before it rolled over in the water and rubbed its belly on our boat! When I held my phone camera over the exhaling whale, we could not only smell its breath (not so good smelling); but, as the exhaled air mixed with water droplets that shot into our faces, the naturalist on the boat yelled, “You’ve been snotted by a whale!” We were snotted quite a few times in one of the most amazing encounters of my life.
After about 45 minutes, the captain took us to some other nearby humpbacks and, well, well, that’s when the show went to the next level! The three whales would take a series of short breaths as they blew bubbles that encircled the bait fish into one spot. When it was time, the whales would dive deep, letting us know they were doing so by fluking. Things became eerily still while they were down as we looked around, trying to predict where they would surface.
The first thing to break the silence was the sound of thousands of tiny fish rising to the surface in one small spot before beginning to jump out of the water in an effort to escape their fate. Like something from a sci-fi movie, the huge, open mouths of three humpback whales rose straight up from below, breaking through the school of corralled, jumping fish. Their propulsion sometimes moved half their bodies into the air as they closed their mouths before sinking back into the ocean, only to repeat the process over and over until satiated.
This is one of the most astounding things I have witnessed, and I’m delighted to say that I witnessed it multiple times. When they rose from the water, their ventral pleats were expanded with water and fish, and it more than doubled their width, so they looked like giants from outer space. Once, they even emerged from the water with open mouths right next to the boat as tears of joy filled my eyes and I hugged my friend.
The following day, we chartered a private boat and, although we saw quite a few whales, we didn’t see lunge feeding but did see one breach out of the water once. Sadly, that evening, we found half the carcass of a long-deceased whale on the beach.
Day 3 of our adventure took us to two lunge feeding whales that we watched for about an hour.
Day 4 of our adventure was whale watching in Santa Barbara. I didn’t think we could top what we’d seen in Monterey, but I was pleasantly surprised when we saw a humpback whale out near Santa Rosa Island breach out of the water over 17 times in an hour! After 17, we lost count because it just kept going and going and going. Breaching their body out of the water, into the air, and then slamming back into the ocean takes an enormous amount of energy, so to see it repeated so many times is very unusual!
As if the breaching weren’t enough, this humpback whale would roll and wave at us with its pectoral fin. Sometimes, it would slap its pectoral fin on the surface of the water multiple times.
As our boat finally headed back to enchanting Santa Barbara, our humpback continued to roll on its side and wave good-bye to us. Holding up my hand to wave back, I knew that weekend had been one of the most amazing marine mammal encounters of my life as not only had I witnessed out-of-this-world behavior, but I had looked into the eye of a whale. How many people can say that? Needless to say, I have successfully checked off #168 on my list, and my life is better because of it.
I’ll post some pics here as well as part of the mugging video and the waving video on my Facebook author page. May you all experience wildlife in its natural environment, and may it choose to witness you in your natural environment.
“Summerset,” the fourth book in the Harbor Secret Series, is now available in paperback and ebook on Amazon. The link is below. By next week, the audiobook should be available on Audible.
Summerset, the fourth book in the Harbor Secret Series, is now available on Amazon!
Daterella's Adventures In Dating 