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Ocean Wild Things

Gray whale smackdown

January 17, 2012 by Carolyn Kraft 1 Comment

Have you ever gotten so frustrated or annoyed that you just wanted to smack someone? You are not alone. And it turns out we as humans are not alone. I recently had to go through boxes of old newspaper clippings (long story) and came across this headline in the pile: “2nd surfer nailed by whale… [read more]

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

Gray whale watching bonanza

January 8, 2012 by Carolyn Kraft Leave a Comment

Gray whale watching started December 26th and it’s shaping up to be one of the best whale watching seasons ever! There has been a ton of press coverage, so this post is definitely on the late side. But it’s still worth mentioning in case anyone missed the news or needs a reminder. Volunteers for the… [read more]

Filed Under: Whales Tagged With: cetacean, gray whale, killer whale, whale, whale watching

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

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

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

Whale watching photos taken near Santa Barbara part 1

August 30, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 2 Comments

Thanks to the hacking incident I’m very behind on posting my latest whale watching photos, but oh well, such is life. On August 13th, I was lucky enough to go on the ACS Whale Watching trip on the Condor Express off Santa Barbara and it was an amazing day. Because it was such a great… [read more]

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

Eating whale tails (chips) helps the oceans

July 18, 2011 by Carolyn Kraft 2 Comments

Eating whale tails is very bad, but eating Whale Tails Chips is awesome! Awhile ago, I wrote a post about these really tasty chips I had discovered that happened to be in the shape of a whale’s tail, which made them extra cool. Well last month, Whale Tails Chips took healthy snacking and helping the… [read more]

Filed Under: Whales Tagged With: cetacean, whale

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