Kingdom of the Blue Whale: Premieres March 9
Be sure to tune into the National Geographic Channel on March 9 for the premiere of "Kingdom of the Blue Whale." They already have some great interactive content to explore on their web site including an interactive Flash module that lets you measure the size of a blue whale as compared with school buses, Triceratops, M1A1 Abrams tanks, the Space Shuttle Orbiter, and more.

Also check out the March 2009 print issue of National Geographic Magazine for the in-depth story and some incredible photos from the field.

While whale watching in the Santa Barbara Channel in July of 2008, we came across the R/V Pacific Storm, which is a research vessel from Oregon State University and one of the home bases for their blue whale research. Here are a couple of photos I snapped of the Pacific Storm and its Zodiac boat which was out tagging blue whales. The Pacific Storm is also pictured in the March issue of National Geographic.

Minke Whale Shows Partial Tail Fluke
While looking for Blue whales in the Santa Barbara Channel this past weekend, we came across what appeared to be a young Minke whale who was interacting with a California sea lion. It was interesting behavior and before one of its dives it rolled on its side and then showed us a partial tail fluke--pretty unusual behavior for a Minke whale. Here's a video clip of the action:


We also spotted at least 10 Blue whales and witnessed a team of scientists tagging the Blue whales with transmitters to monitor location. Note the small yellow/white tag on top of this Blue whale:


And here are the scientists from Oregon State University in action:

Third Blue Whale Found Dead
Yet another Blue whale has been found dead in the waters offshore southern California. This time, the whale was found floating belly-up in the Santa Barbara Channel and was then towed to shore to a beach at Point Mugu, where a necropsy was conducted. It was determined that the whale was killed by ship strike. The whale was male, about 60-feet long, and had multiple broken bones & ribs, as well as a smashed cranium. The Los Angeles Times reports that a great white shark attempted to attack one of the boats that towed the whale in. Other reports also say that sharks have been feeding on the whale carcass at sea.

As you can see in the photo as well as the video that accompanies this post, Blue whales often linger at the surface while they go through multiple, fairly slow breathing cycles before diving. This summer, there have been more Blue whales than usual in the Santa Barbara channel. When the whales rest in the shipping paths of large container ships, they may not be able to dive quickly enough to escape a strike.

While it's unknown whether disease or military-sonar disturbances played any additional roles, it does appear that all three deaths were the result of ship collisions. In addition to the Point Mugu whale, the Faria Beach whale (see earlier post), another Blue whale was found in the Long Beach Harbor and it likely arrived on the bow of a large container ship without the ship's knowledge. It's unfortunate that human activity has caused the loss of these whales because the Blue whale is an endangered species and each individual loss may have consequences for the future population.

In Search of . . . a Blue Whale Carcass
My curiosity got the better of me and I went searching for the Blue whale carcass that washed up on the shores of southern, CA (see earlier post). In the coming days, I will be posting many photos to the OceanSpot channel of Flickr and many videos to the OceanSpot channel of YouTube. Stay tuned for more details...

Blue Whale Carcass Near Ventura California -- Whale Death Was Caused By Ship
by Jennifer Schwartz, www.oceanspot.com

A Blue whale carcass that washed ashore Thursday evening (September 13, 2007) near Hobson County Park near Ventura, CA was towed to Faria Park in Ventura County, CA this morning.
An animal autopsy, or "necropsy," was conducted on the whale, where it was determined that the whale was female, approximately 15-20 years old (note: later reports estimated her age at 3-5 years), had been dead for about 8 days, was approximately 120,000 to 140,000 pounds, and had been struck by a ship, which caused her death. The ship strike was severe, causing a 20-foot bruise under the blubber layer of the whale, and most likely causing paralysis.
While the Blue whale is an endangered species, they have appeared in unusually high numbers in the Santa Barbara Channel this summer, most likely a result of following their main food source (krill) into the channel.

New Whale Videos Posted
This past weekend was yet another amazing one for whale-watching in southern California. Our captain says we spotted 48 Blue Whales on our Saturday outing in the Santa Barbara Channel. Many of these whales were swimming off in the distance, but I'd say we got a close-up view of 20-25 of them. This number is hard to fathom, considering the fact that they are highly endangered animals, as mentioned in an earlier post. Despite the unbearably hot temperatures on land, it was quite chilly out on the water and the water was very rough due to high winds. As a result of the turbulent waters, many of my videos have a dizzying perspective, but there were a few good ones in the bunch and I'll be posting those to the OceanSpot Channel of YouTube. Here's a compilation of the whale videos that are currently posted on the OceanSpot Channel of YouTube. This video loop includes various of species of whales in the wild:

Videos of Blue Whales (near Santa Barbara, CA)
This has been an amazing season for Blue-Whale watching in southern California. Whale-watching tours in the Santa Barbara area have been spotting as many as 10 or 20 Blue Whales per daily outing, which is an amazing number, especially given the fact that these are endangered animals. I've been lucky enough to get out to see them on many a weekend and have had some amazing adventures. Armed with a new video camera, I now have more footage than I know what to do with. As time allows, I'll be posting the best clips to the OceanSpot Channel of YouTube and will post some of my favorites here from time to time. Here are a couple of clips to kick things off. The first clip shows Blue Whale lingering very slowly at the surface taking a series of breaths:




The next clip shows two Blue Whales surfacing, one of which shows a bit of its rostrum (nose) as it surfaces:

To view still photos, click the badge below to see pictures of the Blue Whales I spotted on July 14, July 22, July 28, and August 11, 2007 or click here to go directly to the slideshow.

www.flickr.com

The Blues are Here!
The whale-watching in Southern California is pretty amazing at the moment. I've been out on the water looking for whales the past two weekends and am going again two out of the next three weekends. The Blue Whales are here! If you ever have the opportunity to *try* to see a Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus), I encourage you to do so. Granted, you may spend 8 hours looking for the whales and only about 45 minutes actually watching them, but it is definitely worth it if you have the patience and have taken your motion-sickness medication. Blue Whales are the largest creature ever to have lived on Earth and are larger than the largest dinosaurs. Their tongue weighs about the same as an African Elephant (an elephant could fit in its mouth) and their heart is about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle car. Standing beside a living creature of that size & scale is enough to make any person feel humble. It also serves as a good reminder that we need to take care of the planet and of the many ecosystems that support countless forms of life. In this post are 3 pictures of Blue Whales that I took yesterday & last weekend near the Channel Islands, off the coast of Santa Barbara, CA. Blue Whales are endangered animals and were almost hunted to extinction during the last century. Today, the population estimate is about 8,000. Interesting fact: our world's largest animal survives by eating one of the smallest...krill. Krill is a small shrimp-like creature that the Blue Whales dive to depths of 700+ feet to feed on. To feed, the whales open their large mouth, ingest large amounts of krill, close their mouth, then push their tongue against the roof of the mouth to filter water out of their throat grooves. The krill then stay behind and get caught in the baleen plates. Blue whales are rorqual whales, meaning they have throat grooves and they are also baleen whales, meaning they have no teeth, but rather plates of baleen hanging from the roof of their mouth. Baleen is made of keratin, the same material that our nails and the hoofs of a horse are made from. The baleen plates of a Blue Whale can reach up to 40 inches long! In terms of overall size, today's Blue Whales are about 80-90 feet long, but in the pre-hunting days, they reached up to 110-120 feet in length. To see the by-product of a Blue Whale's krill diet, take a look at the following picture...yes, that's whale poop. The whales can't digest the small shells that encase the krill, so it comes out the other end. The red color comes from the red shell of the krill. We came across these ocean droppings minutes after the Blue Whale dove down for another bite to eat. I've also seen pictures of big red clouds in the water. If you ever come across such a cloud and know that you are in Blue-Whale territory, stay put and wait about 10 minutes to see if the whale surfaces anywhere within about a 1/2 mile radius of your boat. You just may get lucky and become one of the few people who has ever seen a Blue Whale firsthand. Visit the OceanSpot channel on YouTube to see some Blue Whale videos and videos of other ocean life.