With three Gray whale Cow/calf pairs it is very difficult to capture a group portrait of all six whales. The above image shows a mom with a calf on her left side and two little toots trailing.

This was our first group of the day and it was calf blows we saw first. It took some time to figure out there were three pairs, and then we watched the little parade for almost an hour.

Our next whale group was a Cow/calf pair that had rounded Campus Point and was headed for the kelp area to our left when the big, dark whale (mom) arched and then raised her big flukes. It surprised us. We don’t see a lot of fluking with Cow/calf pairs, but we like surprises. Unfortunately, when we left this pair at ten-to-one, it was our last whale sighting of the day.

We got some calls about whales headed our way, and they will pass Counter Point well after we have gone home. The whales migrate 24/7 and we are sampling a third of a day. It is nice to hear about some of the whales that pass our Point when we are not counting.

We saw a Harbor seal that spent a good portion of the day relaxing on a kelp bed in front of us.

One group of Bottlenose dolphins with a calf passed right to left in the mid-afternoon. They were the only dolphins we saw.

Gray whales northbound (all) 8 | Calves 4 — 2015 Count 1085 | 082

Hours 8:00