Originally Armistice Day to celebrate the end of The Great War, November 11 is celebrated by many countries around the world to honor those who have served in the military. In Canada and the other dominion countries it is called Remembrance Day. Whatever you call it, a day set aside to honor the men and women who have fought for our country and the ideals it stands for is a good idea. This Veteran’s Day We celebrated by spending part of the day on a whale watching boat. As I’ve written in the past, I’m a whale paparazzi.
This trip started in Moss Landing, right in the middle of Monterey Bay. Since the whale paparazzi boats from both sides of the bay go to the Salinas Canyon in front of Moss Landing it seemed like a good idea to get more time watching whales and less time getting to them. This is the first time we have been on a whale boat since the onset of COVID 19.
Thanks to COVID protocols our boat carried a little less than 50% of its usual load. What a pleasant surprise! Maybe due to the reluctance of many to get on a crowded boat, the company had reduced the price by about 40%. A nice surprise twice! The best surprise was the whales. With five different species in the bay at different times of the year, it would be difficult not to see a whale in Monterey Bay. None-the-less, it isn’t like a zoo where the animals are caged in, they’re wild and have a choice where to go. Lucky us, we were able to see a couple.
This whale was the victim of Orca attacks when he was young. According to the naturalist on board, the while marks on the dorsal and back are tooth marks from his encounter. In addition to a unique skin pattern, the marks make him easy to spot. As you will see in the video, he showed us a fluke before he left.
I put together a short slide show of our day on the bay. You will see a couple of neighboring boats got a little close. A couple of photos came from an iPhone 11, but most were courtesy of a Nikon D7100 and Nikon 80-400mm lens. In spite of having the long reach (equivalent to 600mm on a 35mm or full frame camera) I was seldom extended all the way out to 400mm.
Talkin' about the past, photographing the present 