We went whale watching in Monterey, CA last Wednesday. We ferried out from shore almost an hour on choppy seas. When we were over a submarine canyon, we lingered for about an hour. During that time, we had about 8 North Pacific Blue Whale sitings. They don’t fluke but we could see their expansive blue-ish backs and the spray from their blow-holes. We had at least 20 Humpback sitings too. My two favorites sights of the day were: seeing a Humpback beat its tale back and forth to communicate with its peers; and seeing a Humpback’s mouth wide open close to the boat. So pink! The skipper said there are only about 5000 North Pacific Blue Whales left—their numbers having been drastically reduced over the last 100 years. The biggest factor in that was 19th century whale hunting for oil. Has anyone else been whale-watching this summer? It’s the best whale-watching year in a couple decades in the Monterey area due to a massive upwelling of marine nutrients there.