As much as we enjoyed the apple and cherry pies on 𝜋-Day, somebody declared “I’d rather see whales on the Ides of March.”

The beginning Stand-Up-Paddlers in the image were not looking for whales, yet they enjoyed paddling upon a very large California sea lion thrashing about with a huge fish. They were up-close-and-personal and had a great view of the action.

Our view of whales from Counter Point was pretty bad. We were looking for white blows in a very bright sky/ocean environment. True to our “rather,” we somehow found lots of whales. We had two large groups of 6 and 8 and a smattering of singles and pairs and threesomes. At 1:15 we had counted 31. In much better observation quality, we added only 5 more searching the rest of the afternoon.

Without whales (for the most part), we discovered Bottlenose dolphins and Common dolphins and a Harbor seal. We also documented two sportfishing boats parked and fishing in the Campus Point State Marine Conservation Area, the Marine Reserve Area we are monitoring for California Department of Fish & Wildlife.

Gray whales northbound (all) 36 | Calves 0 — 2015 Count 521 | 000

Hours 8:04