tursiops.org - Plentiful krill lures dozens of blue whales to Monterey Bay. CA, USA

lauricedeephd writes "SANTA CRUZ — Whale watchers may want to take note of the multitude of blue whales that have been spotted in the Monterey Bay in recent days, rising from the depths in an opportunistic feeding frenzy.

"Enjoy them while you can," said Wayne Perryman, a researcher with NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center.

He explained that blue whales are designed to cover lots of ground and take advantage of highly productive krill patches, "so they just search around to find a place where there's lots of it to eat."

The whales apparently found fertile feeding grounds on the Central Coast Monday, when Nancy Black — a marine biologist with Monterey-based Monterey Bay Whale Watch — reported seeing nearly 30 of them feeding on krill over a two-mile area while out on a whale-watching trip in Monterey Bay. She said she's only seen such a large concentration of blue whales a couple of times in 20 years, and attributed the phenomenon to large amounts of krill, the sole source of food for the whales.

It's hard to predict when and where large concentrations of krill will appear, she added, but the large amount that was in the bay that day was likely due to a variety of factors, including an ocean upwelling that brought nutrients from the Monterey Canyon to the surface.

"On Sunday, we went out and saw humpbacks but no blue whales," she said. "Then overnight, they just suddenly showed up. There were just massive amounts of krill
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that we could see on our depthfinder that goes straight below the boat. For miles, the krill was real thick, like 200 feet thick to the bottom at 400 feet."

Don Croll, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, said the most likely explanation for such a large showing is a "strong and intensive upwelling," which typically leads to a greater amount of phytoplankton that the krill eat.

Blue whales travel along the West Coast from Southern California to British Columbia in search of krill, he explained, and the Monterey Bay tends to be a favorite feeding ground because the deep water is located so close to the shoreline.

Ken Stagnaro, a skipper on the Santa Cruz whale watching boat Velocity, said he saw a few blue whales on Monday, as well as 30-35 humpback whales "lunch feeding," or breaching the surface of the water with their mouths open so they could catch their prey.

"A large concentration of blue whales in one area is fairly unusual around here ... To have 28 in the bay is a lot," he added.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15457470

Another article (video):

Video: Blue, Humpback Whales Spotted In Monterey Bay

A high number of blue and Humpback whales have been spotted in Monterey Bay this week because of a sudden influx of available krill, the main food source for the whales.

Blue whales -- the largest animal on the planet -- can grow up to 100 feet long and eat up to 40 million krill every day.

The video below was taken Wednesday and is courtesy of Princess Monterey Whale Watching.

Note:
Please do click the following link to watch the video:

Source: http://www.ksbw.com/news/"