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All those recent setbacks for the environmental cause had Mark Gold, president of the Heal the Bay, feeling more than a little blue. So his wife made him get on a boat and go look at this summer's invasion of blue whales. Malaise cured.
Thank you Lisette and thank you Heal the Bay. Sunday morning was beyond incredible. If you haven’t gone out to see the Blues, shame on you. There is no way humanly possible to witness a more satisfying natural event in the Bay. We started seeing spouts within a half mile offshore. The boat was only a mile from the coast when we found ourselves surrounded by the magnificent mammals.All in all, we saw about 30 Blue whales and they were all scarfing down krill above the Redondo Submarine Canyon. We were never more than three miles from Redondo Harbor. We saw males racing. We saw about 20 flukes. We saw two Blues feeding on the surface as they swam right at our boat. We even saw two humpbacks and schools of baby mola molas! We were all witnesses! Numerous paddlers floated with a few feet of feeding Blues. I can’t even imagine the emotions they must have felt.
I’ve lived here my entire life. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened in the Bay during my lifetime.
And he's not even selling whale watch trips.
Cropped photo: Aboard the Ocean Adventures catamaran off Dana Point, by Brian Hamilton