September 9th, 2007

Naturalists:
Carol Keiper - Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge (www.oikonos.org)
Doreen Gurrola - the Marine Mammal Center (www.tmmc.org)
Jennifer Stock - Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary

Here are just a few photos from an incredible day on the water, download species list here (80k pdf)

Please note the humpback whales seen so close to the boat approached this vessel from afar while the engines were off. It did not seem appropriate to start the engines on top of a pod of whales, so literally we were held hostage until the whales left themselves. This friendly behavior can easily be misinterpreted as approaching the whales too close, which would be a federal violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act. These whales approached us and would not leave, probably due to the abundance of bait fish hiding under the boat!

Black-footed Albatross were spotted consistently throughout the day offshore. Pretty soon, many will be headed back to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands to return to their breeding grounds. (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

At this point, we had about 5 humpback whales approach, and surround our vessel. With engines off, we were treated to a rare experience with humpbacks. Notice the container ship in the background. This area is a vessel traffic area as well. (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Northern Fulmar were seen in a few different color phases throughout the day as well. (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Dall's porpoise graced us with their presence twice during the day, sometimes bowriding in front of the vessel. (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Humpbacks close to the stern of the vessel, reminder, the whales approached us from a distance. (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Humpback whale (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Humpback close to boat (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Humpbacks surround the boat (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Humpback on its side, nice view of flukes (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Check out those pectoral flippers! (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Blue Whale Flukes - This is the first in 3 years we've seen blue whales (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Sabine's Gulls on the water (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)

Rescued at sea, unfortunately, not an uncommon finding out on the ocean (photo credit JStock/CBNMS)