Recent Sightings

The day at Gerstle Cove began sunny, with moderate wind and moderate amount of whitecaps on a choppy ocean. Visibility was very good.  As the day progressed, it became cloudy and the wind diminished.

🔷 8 humpback whales – 6 singles and 1 deuce

🔷 11 harbor seals

🔷 2 osprey- one carrying a fish

🔷 49 brown pelicans all flying south

🔷 1 Caspian tern

 

This season’s counts were the lowest for both northbound and southbound in our thirteen years of doing this census. They were slightly lower than last season.

SOUTHBOUND:

December, 2025:    40

January, 2026:        315

February, 2026:      27

TOTAL:                     382

NORTHBOUND:

February, 2026:        65

March, 2026:            234 – includes one mother/calf pair

April, 2026:               45 –  includes six mother/calf pairs

May, 2026:                   0

TOTAL:                     344 – includes 7 mother/calf pairs

 

The wind picked up as the day went on creating numerous, small whitecaps upon the ocean. At first we had blue skies but clouds also began to roll in. The wind was blowing 14 mph and gusting to 21 mph out of the south southeast.

AT THE POINT ARENA LIGHTHOUSE PENINSULA:

❇️ 4 humpbacks whales – two were close to one another and two singles, all four whales slowly moving south and north

❇️ 73 harbor seals

❇️ 1 great blue heron having a difficult time flying into the wind

❇️ 2 black oystercatchers

❇️ 4 brown pelicans

🌀 The blows from three humpback whales were photographed later in the day by Janet McElroy from her home overlooking Hearn Gulch.

 

 

Good visibility today with a partly cloudy sky and small, choppy waves upon the ocean.

AT THE POINT ARENA LIGHTHOUSE PENINSULA:

💠 NO WHALES SEEN

💠 7-8 bottlenose dolphins swimming rapidly south about 500 yards offshore

💠 32 harbor seals – outgoing tide

💠 7 brown pelicans

 

 

The ocean was as calm as a lake today as there was no wind and no whitecaps. The sky, however, was white due to a large, lingering fog bank offshore. This made it difficult to detect blows but whale backs could easily be seen.

🔆 AT THE POINT ARENA LIGHTHOUSE PENINSULA:

🔆 2 humpbacks whales – traveling slowly north about 1 mile offshore

🔆 37 harbor seals – outgoing tide

🔆 several barking sea lions could be heard

🔆 20 brown pelicans

🔆 3 black oystercatchers

🔆 NO WHALES  SEEN AT SAUNDERS  REEF