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Ocean Wild Things

Frustrating whale watching trip

October 14, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 3 Comments

My most recent whale watching trip on Saturday, October 8th was frustrating! The weather was amazing, but as the Voyager headed out from Redondo Beach, the first dolphin we saw had its tail tangled in fishing line. Right away we could tell something was up because the common dolphin was swimming alone and very erratically.… [read more]

Filed Under: Dolphins, Whales Tagged With: blue whale, cetacean, dolphin, endangered, marine debris, MMPA, whale, whale watching

Feed the right wolf

October 11, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

First, I should clarify by saying, you should never feed wild animals and wild wolves are no exception. But the title of this post is a way of introducing a parable I was lucky enough to read and just had to share. Every week, a new quote is posted in the break room of Cabrillo… [read more]

Filed Under: Earth musings

Rescued barn owls released into the wild

October 10, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

I finally have a great reason to write about owls! Yesterday, two barn owls were released into the wild after being raised in captivity for nine months. The owls were orphaned when they were three months old and rescued by South Bay Wildlife Rehab. Barn owls are also referred to as common barn owls or… [read more]

Filed Under: Birds Tagged With: bird

It’s Sea Otter Awareness Week!

September 27, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

It just so happens that this week is Sea Otter Awareness Week, so I wanted to take a moment and give a shout out to arguably the cutest animal to ever live on earth. (The key word is “arguably,” but seriously did you look at the photo?) The sea otter is much more than cute,… [read more]

Filed Under: Marine mammals Tagged With: endangered, sea otter

Looking down a blue whale’s nose

September 24, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

Everything about a blue whale is awesome, evening looking down its nose! Why? Because it’s the largest nose in the world! On a recent whale watching trip the captain compared the size of one blue whale nostril to the size of a human baby and a blue whale lung to the size of a bus.… [read more]

Filed Under: Whales Tagged With: blue whale, cetacean, whale, whale watching

Join me for some blue whale watching and rhyming!

September 15, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 2 Comments

The blues are here don’t you know, just get on out there, it’s time to go! See the largest animal to ever live on earth, witness it’s massive hulking, bulking girth. Who knew they would ever visit Santa Monica Bay, I wish there was always enough krill around for them to stay. So rare and… [read more]

Filed Under: Whales Tagged With: baleen, blue whale, krill, whale, whale watching

Injured mola mola, boaters be careful!

September 11, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

On a recent trip out of Redondo Beach, my friend and fellow whale watching enthusiast Henry Jurgens got a great shot of a Mola mola or ocean sunfish. If you take a closer look, you’ll notice four slices in its head and a nasty scrape on the nose. This poor Mola mola had a terrible… [read more]

Filed Under: Fishes Tagged With: ocean sunfish

Diatoms on a blue whale

September 7, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

In one of my recent whale watching posts, there was a photo of a blue whale with some really cool yellow-brown patterns on its back. During the whale watching trip, the naturalist on board explained the pattern was from diatoms, a type of algae that is usually single-celled. But I wanted to find out more!… [read more]

Filed Under: Algae, Whales Tagged With: algae, blue whale, cetacean, diatoms, whale

Whale watching photos taken near Santa Barbara part 3

September 5, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

These are actually dolphin watching photos! We saw three types of dolphins during the all-day ACS whale watching trip: bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins and Risso’s dolphins. We saw a huge pod of common dolphins that were having a blast. Many came over to the boat to do some bowriding, which is always fun to watch,… [read more]

Filed Under: Dolphins, Photography, Whales Tagged With: bowriding, cetacean, common dolphin, dolphin, risso's dolphin, whale watching

Whale watching photos taken near Santa Barbara part 2

September 3, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

Part two (don’t worry there will only be three parts) of amazing whale sighting on the ACS Whale Watching trip features the humpback whales that gave us quite a show. This trip was the first time I’ve seen synchronized swimming or fluking. Four humpback whales swam very closely together, they took time hanging at the… [read more]

Filed Under: Photography, Whales Tagged With: baleen, cetacean, fluke, humpback whale, killer whale, whale, whale watching

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