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Live whale watching in Dana Point - from your computer

Laylan Connelly, staff writer — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:27:38 +0000

The boat cuts though the blue ocean, jamming to locate a puff of a water spout the captain saw miles toward the horizon.

Everyone’s eyes are on the water’s surface, on the hunt for the biggest mammal on Earth.

Captain Dave Anderson, wearing a tan safari hat, talks into the hand-held speaker to the people on the boat, his words muffled.

“That whale shouldn’t be too far from us now. If you all could look around, that would be helpful. Keep your eyes peeled. Look for that puff of smoke,” he tells all aboard the
Capt. Dave Dolphin and Whale Safari adventure.

It wasn’t long before the mammal’s massive back breaks through the water’s surface, prompting cheers of awe from the boat.

For just a few moments in my day, I was transported to the sea on the hunt for these blue whales - but instead of having my hair whipping in the wind and the smell of the sea surrounding me, I was sitting at my desk, glued to the screen while watching the action through live cameras hoisted on Capt. Dave’s boat.

(photo above courtesy of Marc Carpenter/dophinsafari.com)

Anderson might be one of the first in the world to do live-streaming whale watching, allowing anyone with a computer to be instantly transported on one of their daily trips.
Watch live video from whalewatchingtv.com

The idea first came to Anderson about 10 years ago, but he had to wait for technology to catch up. Still, implementing the program wasn’t easy, and there’s moments of dropped signals that cause the need for a few hits of the refresh button.

The live cams can benefit a number of people - those who just want to be transported while putting off work during the day, or educators who can’t take the kids out on a boat but want to teach them about wildlife in the sea.

Anderson set up a Twitter account, and will tweet encounters, letting followers know when they spot blue whales or pods of dolphins.

“You can watch them with us, literally. You can see them at the same time we’re seeing it,” Anderson said.

This has been another exceptional year for blue whale watching.

“It’s been awesome, just awesome,” he said. “We’re seeing lots and lots of blue whales out there. I can’t say if we’re going to have the best season we’ve ever had, but it’s certainly the best August.”

The blue whales - the largest mammal on Earth - started appearing in record numbers here in Orange County about six years ago.
Anderson said that people should never assume they will always show each summer. For about 20 years, they showed up in good numbers in Monterey - but now there’s hardly any sightings up there. For years, they lived off the coast of Alaska, and now they are nowhere to be seen up there.

“They move around and they shift their patterns,” he said. “The best thing to do is make the most of it while they are here.”

Anderson says the blue whales are among the most beautiful, their bodies sleek and smooth.

“These whales are just breathtaking – they have a luminescence when they are coming out of the water, they are like a turquoise color,” he said. “Then there’s just their sheer size. They are just enormous. And they are just very fearless.”

There have also recently been a lot of sightings of mother and calves together, a sight shown on the live cam Friday afternoon, a baby swimming very close to its mother. There are anywhere between 4,500 and 10,000 blue whales in the world, with about 2,000 of them in local waters.

Anderson was unsure of how the public would respond to the live cams, but after the launch a few days ago, is sure the concept is going to catch on. There have been viewers from as far away as Europe and Brazil.

“It’s one of those things, if you build it they will come… you hope,” he said.

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Rare sighting of killer whales close to coast

Laylan Connelly, staff writer — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:58:40 +0000

There was a lot of action in the water last night down in Dana Point, with two whale watching charter boats seeing a pod of five killer whales playing alongside the boats - even rubbing up against them.

The Dana Wharf Sportsfishing and Whale Watching crew saw the pod at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday during its Ocean Adventure cruise, just 2.2 miles out of the harbor. “The Orcas were very friendly and showed various behaviors,” said manager Donna Kalez.

”They were jumping, breaching, slapping the water, rolling around, and the only way I can explain it is that they were playing!”

They were headed up the coast toward Newport by sunset.

“It was like sea world,” she said.

The crew on Capt. Dave’s Whale Watching and Dolphin Safari got a call about the whales from Mike Bursk, skipper at the Ocean Institute, who had originally heard about the whales from the Dana Pride crew.
“We made a mad dash down there … and raced to the spot, about four miles from the harbor,” said Gisele Anderson, wife of Cpt. Dave.

There were five Orca, but they weren’t sure whether they were transients or residents, or if they came from further out offshore.
“We haven’t seen residents down here in the last 10 years or so, but we have seen offshore variety, from a Mexico pod (The La Paz pod) several times.
The last time Orcas were seen here in Dana Point was on Valentine’s Day, 2005. They were from the La Paz pod, Anderson said. In Newport, they saw a huge pod a few months ago. Read that story here.

“They were amazing. Not in any hurry, just moving slowly up the coast…breaching and breaching. One, the largest, kept rolling on his back, and swimming on the surface, upside down,” she said.

“At one point when they came over (as they did several times), one of them actually touched our fender!”

The day before, Anderson had been at Sea World and saw the Orcas in captivity, the sight of them bringing tears to her eyes.
“All I could think of was how these orcas would never know what it was like to swim in the wild, over vast areas, with their families for decades.

Click on the jump to see more photos and read more about Orcas.

They would not know what it was like not to have to swim in a chlorine pool, where they cannot escape the sunlight.”

Here’s more information on Orcas from Wikipedia:

The Orca or Killer Whale is the largest species of the oceanic dolphin family. It is found in all the world’s oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to warm, tropical seas.

Orcas are versatile and opportunistic predators. Some populations feed mostly on fish, and other populations hunt marine mammals, including sea lions, seals, and even large whales.

There are up to five distinct Orca types, some of which may be separate races, subspecies or even species. Orcas are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups which are the most stable of any animal species.