Cetacean Nation

Pam Wood:

I was out on a dive excursion in the Bahamas and the boat came to a stop and suddenly this dolphin just popped up from the water as if to say “Hi, welcome to the Bahamas”. I quickly picked up my Canon 5d camera with my shaking hands and was rewarded with this image. I refer to this as “PhotoKarma”.

What a beauty!

this whale is gay and there’s nothing you can do about it

Happy Pride Month!

A baby vaquita

Happy Earth Day from your National Marine Sanctuary System! 

Our blue planet is truly one of a kind. Our ocean connects people, and sustains everything from magnificent breaching humpback whales to vibrant coral reefs. Let’s show Earth some love today (and every day) 💙. 

How are you celebrating Earth Day? 

(Photo: Douglas Croft) 

[Image Description: A breaching humpback whale.]

It’s Dolphin Awareness Month! 

Many different species of dolphin can be found in your national marine sanctuaries – including common dolphins. Known for their incredible energy and acrobatic skills, common dolphins are gregarious, sometimes gathering in groups of hundreds or thousands. They’re frequently spotted bowriding, or surfing in the waves created by boats. Have you seen them while visiting your West Coast sanctuaries? 

(Photo: Peter Flood) 

[Image description: A dolphin leaping out of the water.]

Looking for a Halloween movie? How about “Attack of the Bone-Eating Osedax Zombie Worms!” You’re whale-come!

Footage courtesy of our partners at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

Got a bone to pick? Let Osedax worms know! These worms can transform a whale skeleton into a homemade broth, drilling into the ex-whale with acid and licking their plates clean until there are no more leftovers to be found for to-marrow’s lunch.

Whale falls are so cool, a dead whale basically becomes an ecosystem!

Rough toothed dolphins | Magenta Oceans Photography

Dolphins - Photos by George Karbus

🐬 We’re backflipping into Dolphin Awareness Month with this Pacific white-sided dolphin in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary! 🐬 

Pacific white-sided dolphins are highly social animals that can be seen traveling in schools of up to a thousand individuals. They are also very playful, and can be spotted “bow riding,” or swimming near the front part of a ship, jumping, somersaulting, and spinning in the air! 

Pacific white-sided dolphins are protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but they still face threats from fishing gear entanglement and underwater noise pollution. You can help by keeping a distance from the dolphins, and reporting dolphins that are in distress. Learn more about how you can help these charismatic whales here. 

(Photo: Douglas Croft) 

[Image description: A dolphin backflipping above water.]

Gray whales are currently migrating through Monterey Bay on their way to the breeding grounds of Baja. For divers Ben Laboy and Nicole Guido-Estrada, that made for a whale of an experience!

In a total fluke of circumstance, Ben and Nicole happened to be diving along Cannery Row from one of Monterey’s local dive boats when a curious gray whale came to investigate their bubbly personalities. Gone in 30 seconds, the leviathan continued along its southward journey, leaving Ben and Nicole to freak out and high-five over a once-in-a-lifetime underwater encounter. Gray whales migrate tens of thousands of miles every year from their breeding lagoons in Baja California, Mexico to the rich feeding grounds of the Bering Sea. Hunted to near extinction in the 20th Century, gray whales have now recovered to a stable population along the West Coast of North America thanks to conservation efforts and a change of heart towards these majestic marine mammals. It’s perfectly poetic that Ben and Nicole came across this wandering whale off of McAbee Beach, once home to a whaling station and now host to impromptu underwater whale-watching. Not so long ago, this proud parade of gray whales was nearly lost to history. Today, spotting them on their migration is commonplace up and down the coast—if you stop by the coast of Big Sur or post up along Cannery Row, you’re bound to see a few spouts as signals to this conservation success story. And should you be lucky as Ben and Nicole were to come across one in its domain, you’ll be excused for any whale-borne transformation into a blubbering fool.

Special thanks to Ben for sharing this amazing video with us! 

Whale hello there! We just saw a migrating gray whale off of the Aquarium, just outside of the kelp forest, likely headed South to the breeding lagoons of Baja California. The migration is pretty whale wrapping up here in Monterey, but with this fluke of a sighting, let’s sealebrate these traveling leviathans with this gray-t video of a surprise visitor filmed by divers last year along Cannery Row!

Note 🐋: Divers are sometimes fortunate enough for one of these curious commuters to swing by and check out lucky bubble buddies. But remember, for the safety of the whales, federal law requires that we keep a safe distance from them. The whales should say hello on their own terms, so be sure count your lucky sea stars if it happens!