Author: tmercer

OBSERVATIONS FROM POINT ARENA LIGHTHOUSE PENINSULA: 💠 1 humpback whale, heading north 💠 100 harbor seals 💠 86 brown pelicans, mostly flying north 💠 1 great blue heron

OBSERVATIONS FROM POINT ARENA LIGHTHOUSE PENINSULA: ☀️ 1 humpback whale, slowly traveling to the north ☀️ 78 harbor seals ☀️ 57 brown pelicans, including several small groups diving into the ocean to feed; others flying north ☀️ 1 great blue heron ☀️ 1 white-tailed kite

Although it was sunny and clear at some locations along the coast, the fog kept rolling in at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula greatly reducing our visibility. We did see: 🔆 46 harbor seals 🔆 1 sea lion swimming south 🔆 groups of brown pelicans feeding upon anchovies 🔆 1 great blue heron Today we…

When the morning fog lifted, we headed out to look for whales at the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula and Saunders Reef. 🔴 NO WHALES SEEN AT EITHER SITE AT PAL, we observed: 🔶 56 harbor seals 🔶 1 great blue heron 🔶 feeding groups of brown pelicans

We looked for whales today from the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula and Saunders Reef. At PAL, we observed: 🔷 one whale that we were unable to identify with certainty; we suspect it was a humpback; we saw the whale blow three times and then he or she vanished 🔷 60 harbor seals 🔷 1 great…

https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/science-conservation/conservation/cetacean-conservation/stranding-necropsy/whale-stranding-press-materials

We did not observe any whales today at various locations from Gualala, to Saunders Reef, to the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula. Shari Goforth, however, did photograph a possible blue whale or finback whale this morning which she first saw off Gualala Point and then off Ollies straight which is just south of Anchor Bay and…

♦️ The team conducting this years survey of migrating gray whales has determined that the current population size is 12,900. ♦️ This is the lowest number since the early 1970’s and lower than the reduced population size following the Unusual Mortality Event from 2019 – 2023. ♦️ The estimated calf count is 85, the lowest…

Total southbound grays seen: 391 Total northbound grays seen: 350 November – 0 southbound December – 8 southbound January – 354 southbound February – 28 southbound 15 northbound March – 1 southbound 256 northbound – includes 1 mother/calf pair April – 75 northbound – includes 4 mother/calf pairs May – 4 northbound 90% of southbound…

If you have not already done so, we urged you to submit a comment regarding offshore oil and gas drilling. Much gratitude to all those who have done so.

Today was quite windy, 16 mph with gusts up to 29 mph from the north northwest. This created many whitecaps on the ocean making it very challenging to see whale blows. At the Point Arena Lighthouse peninsula, we observed: 💠 1 blow – unable to identify the type of whale 💠 83 harbor seals 💠…