Blue whales putting on a show this summer

I know, every summer the boat captains say this is the year the blues are amazing. But this year they apparently are, outdoors writer Pete Thomas says, calling it "the most impressive local showing of the great leviathans in recent history." Unusually cool waters have brought the krill closer to shore, Thomas says, and the whales follow. They "are so abundant off Southern California that it seems the entire population has taken up residence between Santa Barbara and Dana Point...perhaps hundreds of the world's largest mammals."

Cropped photo: Aboard the Ocean Adventures catamaran off Dana Point, by Brian Hamilton