Whale of a good time!
 

Went fishing today in La Jolla unfortunately fishing was pretty slow, but had a chance to experience something that I never have in my entire life and it was amazing. I was out at about 120ft and saw a huge splash about a mile out, thought it might be a boat wake but saw no boat so I continued to look in that direction. Five minutes later I saw a massive Whale jump out of the water and I figured I need to paddle out and check it out. Ended getting within 50 ft of an amazing whale, not sure what kind but would love some suggestions on what it may be. Got some great pics and spent about an hour just hanging with the whale and loving life. Also I found some weird tranquilizer looking thing about 300ft from the whale, not sure what it was but it maybe someone here knows. Anyway, got skunked fishing but well worth the paddle. Didn't think whales came that close this time of year, was at about 180 ft a few miles out. Also posted a video, it jumped a couple times, spectacular, sorry for the crappy video work. Gotta love the ocean and our sea life!!!:luxhello::luxhello::luxhello:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2V-cRdsOmY

Awesome Pics Chuck :cheers1:

cool shots!!!

nice pictures, that syringe looking thing? it looks like a ball pump for basketballs/footballs that sort of thing.

Anyone know what kind of a whale that was?

I have seen humpbacks jump like that but never the gray, finback or blue whales that are common around here. If it was a humpback it would be the first that I have heard about in these waters.

Bob

So cool , Thanks for sharing ... :cheers1:

rad video and really cool story

I saw that SOB doing that all day today!? :eek:It was quite the sight! I thought someone was dropping depth charges over between Torrey Pines & Delmar!! I must have seen at least ten explosion go off when he was having fun jumping..
Amazing shots!!!:you_rock::cheers1:






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Awesome photos, Chuck! I was out yesterday and saw the same thing! They must have breached at least 15x in a span of 30-45 minutes... it was amazing. Unfortunatly I couldn't get my camera to focus until the breach and by then it was too late to snap the pic!

Humpback whale! :cheers1: They do come around once and awhile. With the water being off temp and a wierd season, the cooler water has some more nutrience and food for them, So its not suprising they might be around mid migration.

they jump like that to try and knock off parasites and particles from there skin. kind a like having a massive itch and no way to scratch it.

I was fishing on sunday and this whale was out there for about twenty plus minutes jumping about. A couple of times it appeared to completely breach. It was most impressive.

Thanks for all the great responses, I am truly curious as to what species this was. Here is another video of the whale a little closer and you can see it surface a few times. What a amazing animal, was so close I could smell its spray from its blowhole and man it stunk pretty bad. Hope to see more out there in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tUaFDLNn94

Thousands of humpbacks hang out in Hawaii during the winter and spring. It is where they give birth and mate. The gestation period for a humpback is about a year. Come to think of it, humpbacks are just like some guys I know. Once a year they head off to some tropical location, hoping to get lucky. After their spring fling, the whales migrate some 4000 miles back to their feeding grounds in arctic waters. Come November, they turn around and head back to the topics.

On a good day in Hawaii, (I know, there are no bad days in Hawaii), you can often see dozens jumping and waving their pectoral fins. A 40 ton whale can make a huge splash.

When I was there last spring, a group did a whale count with volunteers stationed on every island. During the two hour census, they identified over 450 unique whales from shores of Maui alone.

Interesting stuff.

Bob

Cool vid. Thanks for sharing.

Hump back for sure!
 

Gino in the post above you is right on the money. the long pectoral fins in photo #2 prove that the whale is a humpback.

"Humpback Whales are distinctive in that they have the largest appendages of any living animal, namely their knobbly pectoral fins which are close to 1/3 of their total length."
http://www.marinethemes.com/humpback.html

definately hump back only species to have that type of unique hump/fin and long pectoral fins and breaching....gino's got it right. That's worth peddling out just for that........... that is freakin' awsome!!!!!! Don't get t to close...illegal is the least of you worries check this out.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/milwakee...-boat-21021370

you think that one was bad this one is a little close to what that might be like......:eek::eek::eek:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/230950...ps_on_a_kayak/

How cool is that. You got an out of the water shot :cheers1:



I think that thing you found is a basketball pump.:)

Thats so cool I saw a Humpback, thanks for the confirmation all:notworthy:. Thats funny you posted those videos, I got pretty close, but the whole time I was thinking about the video I saw on the internet of the Whale leaping out of the water and crushing that boat in South Africa and thought that could be me. It was hard to hold myself back and not get too close to view such an amazing creature though. Thankfully I made it out ok :doh:, I think he saw me too and was ok with me being there. Either way definitely played it safe even though I wanted to go give him a pat on the head and say whats up!

Great pictures! I have seen lots of whales off of boats but not my yak. Must have been fun.

I was in LJ yesterday not catching fish and saw some thing jump out of the corner of my eye. It was big and fairly far away. I kept looking in the general direction and saw the whale jump again. Very cool. I was further away than the shots in the post but still close enough to tell it was hump back. That is a first for me in so cal. I've seen loads of greys in close, bues and fins off shore, minkes at the Tanner Bank, orcas at the whisler bouy at the mouth of SD Bay and now a hump back. I love the ocean. Mike