Sanctuary Cruises - Captain's Log

9/3/03: Summer: Gone With a Bang
As I greeted passengers last week, I told them about the fantastic sightings we had the day before with blue whales. Several of our frequent flyers were aboard and all of us agreed that we’d never had such a close “drive-by” from three blues in a row. Then one whale came toward us as we sat there and it didn’t dive until it was at the bow. I mean right at the bow. Twenty feet away. That's how David Tillotson, who was celebrating his birthday, was able to get this picture. We watched the whale's flukes ten feet under water as it disappeared below Princess of Whales. I explained it was a once-in-a-lifetime cruise and they couldn’t feel bad about having missed it by one day. We take what nature gives us.

So we headed out onto Monterey Bay and just as we passed the jetties, were greeted by 8 or 10 bottlenose dolphins, the ones made famous by “Flipper.” Then we saw the huge pelagia jellies with their vibrant purple-striped domes. Next, a minke whale surfaced on our port side, close by. Not half an hour passed before we had blue whales all around us, krill boiling at the surface and in one breath-taking moment, a blue whale came up directly beside our starboard rail and Jennifer Firman captured the event on video.

We could have thrown in the towel right there, it was that great, but one of the blues proceeded to fluke as though on cue so that Jennifer’s uncle, John Eller, was able to get an incredible photograph which he turned into a collage and emailed to friends across the country the next morning.

It was the last day of August and we’ve had a great summer thanks in large part to the yeoman’s job our deckhands Noel and Hillary have done. To celebrate, Steph and I took them out to dinner at our Moss Landing neighbor, The Whole Enchilada. Guess who was there? Yep, a good portion of our passengers from the cruise and their excitement over the day hadn’t faded. It was a delicious way to end the day and the summer.

However, there was one more day left, Labor Day. As I checked passengers in, I told them about the previous two cruises. One fellow listened intently then asked, “Third time’s the charm?” Maybe so, I shrugged and off we went. Fog was thick and I drove for over an hour without a whale sighting. Since visibility was limited, we slowly cruised the Soquel Hole area where they’d been the day before.

Then, just as the fog started to lift, we spotted the first of many blues and were treated to spectacular lunges, flukes and even a series of 6-8 breaches by a blue whale! Until then, Steph and I had only seen one breach by a blue, ever. This one was charging south, so we fell in behind it and went along for the dizzying ride, gasping at what we were seeing; incredulous over the fact that for three days in a row we’d had experiences of a lifetime. Knowing that our passengers had as well and could take home vibrant photographs, huge bragging rights and electrifying memories made it all the sweeter.

Now, with the summer crowds gone, the best weather of the year and the abundant blues and humpbacks that will be here well into late fall, we can kick back and enjoy it all at a more leisurely pace. Perfect. See you out there.

8/22/03: Our Refrigerator & the Whales
Phone calls to Sanctuary Cruises often start like this: “What are you seeing out there?” They might as well ask us to recite the contents of our refrigerator. Even if I narrow it down to general themes per shelf, it could take a while. And that doesn’t even count the science projects, those containers whose contents lurk in the range of, “Steph, do you have any idea what this is?” So it has been on the Monterey Bay in August.

The big ticket items have been blue whales, humpback whales and fin whales. We’ve had grand sightings of blue whales, often so many that we’ve lost count. Then there have been the humpbacks. In recent years they’ve arrived on the bay in the spring in huge numbers, then spread out all along the coast. This summer though, we’ve had excellent sightings of so many humpbacks that we’d think we had them all, until a friend down at Piedras Blancas or elsewhere reports they’re seeing a lot of humpbacks, too.

These are all summer species to be found on the Central Coast, but what about the pod of a couple of hundred common dolphins that splashed our way last week? Commons are our winter dolphins! I suspect that since we had a mild El Nino winter and this is a mild La Nina summer, some species are experiencing a space warp. Temperature dictates so much of life and if temperatures are skewed from the average, so are the sightings.

Heading out of Moss Landing Harbor Saturday, Steph stopped Princess of Whales to let passengers gaze over the side at the largest pelagia jellies we have ever seen. These pulsing beauties have white domes with purple stripes emanating from the crown. They look like Tiffany lampshades and usually are in the one to two foot in diameter range. But the huge specimens we have seen recently would, if they really were glass lampshades, buckle the legs of a small coffee table. I believe some were three feet across and maybe more. While most have not had the long, flowing mouth organs that trail beneath them, the ones that did ranged from perhaps eight to twelve feet long!

Drifting at low speed with the pelagia jellies, folks on the bow spotted something else. They said it was big. Steph was extra cautious and thank goodness for that because moments later, a full-sized, six foot long giant leatherback turtle appeared in line with our port bow. Steph slammed the engines in reverse and stopped the boat. The turtle dove to safety.

The reactions of our passengers to such intriguing creatures was largely like our own. It’s a world of wonder out there and we like to take it all in. But one man was not so enthusiastic. “Yeah,” he muttered, “and what about the WHALES?” Ann Beyer is a retired nurse who has volunteered on the Camp SEA Lab cruises all summer. Firmly hooked, she joined us again with a friend on this day. She heard the fellow’s remark and considered chiding him, but decided to let it go. He’d see; she was confident.

And see he did. The following few hours were absolutely jammed full of dolphins and whales, whales and dolphins. We saw everything including this humpback cow and her calf who have been out there all summer. Anyone who has visited a new baby at the hospital will have that special memory as time goes by and the baby grows. So it will be with many of the people on our cruises. In the following years, some will bring out friends and relatives and say, “Why, I remember the first time we ever saw that whale with the white markings on its dorsal fin! It was just a little thing the summer of 2003 and what a season that was!” See you out there.

8/12/03: Cadillac and the Green Soup
Last week, we hosted our second fundraiser for The Friends of Long Marine Lab. Supporters were able to share the company of like-minded, good-hearted people who hoped to see blue whales. However, as we departed Moss Landing Harbor, Steph spotted some low, bushy blows that turned out to be 3 killer whales! We tracked them for a few surfacing sequences before pushing out to the area with the blues since the wind was predicted to rise earlier than usual.

In addition, we had Dr. Ivan Schwab of UC Davis onboard Princess of Whales. He brought the biggest plankton net we’ve ever seen. At 14’ long and made of 45 micron mesh, Dr. Schwab hoped the net would capture a tiny creature that was written about in 1921 but not since. It is a single-celled creature with an eye, which seems impossible to us, but what do we know?

Dr. Schwab is an ophthalmologist at Davis and he’s the cover editor for the British Journal of Ophthalmology. He’s interested in comparative ophthalmology--how other animals see--and has studied numerous underwater creatures such as the octopus. Originally he had hoped to enlist the help of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in his hunt for the creature said to be found in Monterey Bay plankton in the summer, but when those plans fell through, Steve Webster at the aquarium suggested us.

My scientific interest is to see if the creatures have the master gene for eyes--called Pax 6," he wrote in his email introduction. "The scientific questions are numerous, but one of them is ‘Is this the first eye?’ for this is a plankton species and is a predator," he continued. We were hooked. "In fact, there are three known species of this creature-- all related to each other,” he summarized. Reel us in, Doc.

But there was the self-confessed problem that Ivan Schwab, “Couldn't tell a plankton haul from a Lacrosse game,” so he’d need help. Enter Captain Bill Wardle, recently retired from running R/V Point Lobos for Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute who's now doing some work for us. Bill knows plankton tows and he supervised the hauls. In addition, Lisa Borok of Long Marine Labs was onboard. Lisa’s specialty in school was the green soup found in the base of a plankton net, the fascinating microscopic creatures that are the very beginning of the web of life. She was full of helpful suggestions as they scrutinized the catch under a dissecting microscope and pointed out diatoms, which are single-celled plants; larvae from invertebrates such as crabs, copepods and perhaps a sea star; zooplankton, which looked like rice grains with long antennae; and a chaetognath, which is a predatory worm (well! aren't they all?). It’s too soon to tell if this initial haul paid off for the doctor, but I’ll keep you posted on his progress. You can see a picture of the dynoflagellate he's searching for on our web site in the Other Creatures Gallery if your version of updates doesn't show pictures.

The majority of the cruise was spent watching blue whales, including one very unique animal we’ve seen for the past several years. Its flukes are bent upward like the fins of a 50’s vintage car, which explains why Steph has named it Cadillac. This whale tends to fluke--show its tail--more than most blue whales and so observers have gotten the bonus of seeing a rarity, blue flukes, on top of another rarity, the upswept tips of a whale easily recognized from the rest. We don’t know how the tips got shaped like this, but we do know Cadillac seems to be doing just fine. See you out there.

7/30/03: Best Blue Whale Photograph?
Girish Hullatti orchestrated reservations for a large group of alumni from Berkeley and Stanford for last week’s cruise. He is a bubbly, happy guy and he explained as they boarded that he organized the group cruise without fear because he has been out with us before, the sightings were wonderful and he feels like family on our trips. Maybe he didn’t feel the pressure to please all of his friends, but we did. Then again, the blues and humpbacks have been extraordinary. We expected cool stuff.

Stig Thormodsrud is a software engineer at Cisco Systems in San Jose. Although photography is just a hobby for him currently, he’d love to pursue it. His travels have taken him to many exotic places such as Fiji, Egypt, Indonesia and Honduras and he‘s taken a fair amount of photographs along the way. He‘s even sold some of them, but not enough to call it a career.

Stig joined us for his first whale watching cruise the same day as Girish’s group. He brought along his new digital Nikon and we were sure he’d take home some trophies because the whales have been heart-pounding, head-rushing incredible, but NEVER have we seen the behavior we saw on that cruise.

Blue whales were feeding all over the Monterey Bay. We watched so many that we lost count. We saw seven rare flukings, where they raise their gigantic, sharp-tipped tails out of the water prior to diving. Cameras buzzed and beeped, people gasped and clapped and cheered as though watching fireworks. We’d been with blue whales for over 2 hours and the trip was only half over!

I headed Princess of Whales in toward Monterey for a little Cannery Row tour. I explained to the passengers that we’d seen what mid-bay had to offer and we’d checked out the whales farther outside, so by swinging in closer to shore for the return voyage to Moss Landing, we might see something else. Steph wasn’t so sure about this course, but we’d already had a great trip; what did we have to lose?

A mile off our port side, there was a huge splash. A breaching whale! It had to be a humpback and we hadn’t seen one of them yet, so I headed that way. But it wasn’t a humpback. It was a trio of blue whales tearing up the bay, thundering out of the water in semi-horizontal bursts the likes of which we have never seen before, not with such precision or speed. Or hang time. They surfaced one in front of the other at the same time. They barrel-rolled on their sides. They left the water like missiles and they returned like kids doing cannonball dives into a lake. Very big kids.

It was off the scale in every way, especially when they turned our way and I had to back both engines down to clear their path, just in case. Then they burst out of the water so close that had I been trying to take pictures, my zoom lens wouldn’t have let me. But Stig’s Nikon did let him and this is the result. It is easily one of the best whale photographs Steph and I have ever seen. It is one of the top 2 or 3 blue whale shots. And he got it on his first trip whale watching!

Girish was very happy. He said he might bring more friends out again next week. I doubted we could top this day, but he was sure we’d do it. “You always do!” he announced cheerfully. Here we go again!

7/25/03: Nature's Lesson for Humans and Whales
A whale hangover, by definition, must be very large. I should know because we’ve had a couple of week’s worth of them thanks to plentiful blue whales and humpback whales on the Monterey Bay. The excitement increased last week with humpbacks lunge feeding with abandon all around our boats, often surfacing close enough for us to smell their fishy, rank breath and hear that explosive blow that reverberates in your bones and lingers in your memory like the first glimpse of a loved one. That feeling may dissipate over time like a misty blow but it is never forgotten, nor replaced by anything else. You're never the same after it.

I will never be the same after seeing this shot which Verena Haeussermann got last week on one of those cruises. We both took our pictures at the same time but hers is so far superior to mine that I plan to sell my soul for a new camera just as soon as I find someone goofy enough to buy it! Look at that eye, which tells the story so well. You've seen the same expression at Baskin Robbins, that blissful state attained from a genuine pig out.

On one foggy afternoon, headed in from marvelous whale sightings, I talked on the VHF radio with Tinker, who runs Check Mate. Tinker had a humpback feeding near his boat so I swung by for a look. It was a young adult, perhaps ¾ grown. It had a marvelous, predictable pattern of blowing bubbles underwater (probably to confuse or scare its prey), then it would raise one pectoral flipper high in the air and next its head would lunge skyward, mouth wide open. It only took a couple of surfacings to know something was amiss but what? Steph was driving this trip and he voiced my concern. Something was wrong with this whale.

Soon, we had solved the mystery. As the whale’s head appeared, we could see that the end of its rostrum or snout was bent over and it flopped into the mouth like a male elephant seal’s proboscis, that huge, fleshy nose they’re so well known for. What had caused this on the whale? I suppose like a human, it could have smashed the cartilage in that area, but it also had another oddity: The area halfway between the blowholes and the upper lip had a high bridge of lumpy flesh in a spot that’s usually smooth or at most accentuated by tubercles, bumps that are naturally occurring and have one or more stout hairs growing from them. This mound was far larger and as the whale swam horizontally, water washed over it. Taking a photograph of it was difficult but I snapped one picture after another; maybe I’d get lucky.

We enlisted the help of our buddy A.J., who is the deckhand on Magnum Force, when the boat joined us out there. A.J. got several shots on his digital camera, but a trip to Costco’s One Hour Photo Department allowed me cause for celebration; I did get the shot! Natural birth defect or injury? Probably birth defect.

The question was far easier to answer July 20th. We started our cruise with many blue whales just a few miles west of Moss Landing Harbor. Once passengers were able to get that trophy shot of the mighty blues--sunlight glistening on their island-sized backs, the photos that will make friends in New Jersey and Kansas green with envy--I worked out to the west, hoping to spot a humpback or two. Two is what we got and the first one was like money in the bank. It was big, beautiful and it showed its gorgeous tail almost every time it sounded. It seemed to toy with us, approaching Princess of Whales then pausing as though to say, “Watch this!” Then it would dive in a slow motion ballet that was pure poetry. I told our passengers, “If any of you missed that shot, bring your cameras up here and hand them over. You don’t deserve to have a camera.” There was a lot of laughter and there were no groans because time and again, the whale seemed to pose for us and camera shutters clicked in unison.

Then a smaller humpback appeared. We cruised along behind it, pointing out the differences in its dorsal fin and size from the other whale, but we hardly had to. As this whale fluked, we all gasped. I cringe even now as I close my eyes and picture what we saw next. The entire left half of the whale’s fluke was completely gone, sliced off as though by a large, sharp scalpel. It was a fresh wound, pink and flesh-colored. It had most likely been caught in some form of fishing gear that was attached to a powerful vessel, otherwise the injury would have been more ragged. But when the cable tightened around the base of the whale’s body and the tail couldn’t compress enough to slip free, it was sheared off. After scrutinizing our passenger’s photographs, I could see that a good portion of the right half of the tail was gone as well. I struggled to put it in perspective for our passengers, who asked if the whale could survive and adapt.

There is such a long list of things whales don’t tell us,” I began, “but look at Steph. He's survived and adapted after losing his leg. He's triumphed over the loss, but the whale has the advantage in not knowing this is unusual. It’s simply what is and based on the fact the whale’s feeding, there’s hope. But hold a good thought for this whale anyway; it can use it.” And with that, we peeled away to let the whale go about its business, hoping it has years and years ahead of it to do just that.

On Friday's cruise, for the third day in a row, we saw blue whales in astonishing numbers. Folks from Downey Savings joined us and they weren't completely sold on the idea they'd actually see a whale. Not only did we (again and again and again), but one came up just below the boat, ghosting along 10 feet under us! When it surfaced to breathe, its flukes were still under us while the head was nearly in the next county.

7/15/03: Minke, Humpback & Blue Whales--but which one?!
I spotted the first whale blows from a few miles away. We had several whales ahead. Steph turned Princess of Whales toward them but then we saw another whale and it was closer to us. He slowed the boat and we waited. The whales farther away sent more blasts of vapor into the air, then we saw sunlight glistening off their backs before they sounded. A humpback fluked, raising its gigantic tail high as it dove. It looked as though one or two blues were out there as well. But the whale we had stopped for was nowhere to be seen.

The blow had been fairly tall and narrow, so we suspected it was a blue whale. Steph told our passengers blues can stay down twenty minutes or more and encouraged patience; excitement, however, was running high. I scanned all directions from my vantage point on top of the bridge. Over ten minutes after we’d last seen the whale, it surfaced a quarter mile away from us, so we headed that direction. But with one exposure of its back, the whale was gone for several more minutes. The distant whales, meanwhile, were blowing up a storm. They came to the surface all at once and stayed up for numerous breaths.

When our whale came up next, it was several hundred yards away in yet another direction. After a few more episodes that ranged all points of the compass, we were able to get a good look at its dorsal fin. It was taller and darker than a blue whale’s dorsal fin; it was also quite slender. The mystery was solved.

We’ve got a minke whale!” Steph announced. Minke is pronounced minkee which rhymes with slinky and that’s exactly what these whales are. There is no tracking them as with other whales. They rarely show much of themselves and their course seems ever-changing, perhaps with good reason. These are the whales Japan slaughters in the hundreds annually in a "scientific" hunt that all agree is an end run around the International Whaling Commission's ban on commercial whaling. Once Japan's "tests" are conducted on the dead whales, they are eaten. Japan insists they can't conduct their studies on live whales as scientists around the globe do and furthermore, they claim it would be a shame to waste the whale meat. Yeah, right. I have never gotten a decent picture of a minke. I tried to capture one that day when the animal surprised us and surfaced close enough we could hear its blow clearly, but it was gone as fast as it had appeared.

A few days later, Steph ran a trip aboard Sanctuary and again he came across a minke. He warned our passengers that the whale would probably be seen once and then be far away the next time it surfaced. They’d try for a look at it then head out for the blues and humpbacks we’ve been seeing regularly. Suddenly the whale burst to the surface just in front of the sitting boat and Joy Hallof had her camera ready. She snagged the picture that has eluded me for several years.

That’s not to say I haven’t managed to get a fair number of beautiful whale photographs. Despite the fact I drive half of the trips on Princess of Whales and sometimes help out in the galley or do a little bartending as well as puttering around visiting with passengers, most of my rolls of film usually have a couple of shots that elicit a “Wow!” when shown to others. In that category, humpbacks offer the greatest opportunities. They are big whales, they fluke frequently and when they‘re feeding, some of the views we glimpse are astounding.

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary recently requested use of our photos for their publications. We eagerly agreed and so did several of our passengers whose trophies are posted on our web site in the Whale and Dolphin Galleries. We all would like our sanctuary to show to advantage since it’s such a place of wonder.

See you out there.

7/8/03: Give and Take on Monterey Bay
What we give to and take from people in our lives has been on my mind lately. It was prompted by Mary Lynn Tenenbaum, a woman who discovered our business almost at its inception and who has joined us for many whale watching cruises in the following four years. It began in Santa Cruz, just after we’d purchased Sea Dancer from Shamrock Charters there. Sea Dancer was a bit scruffy back then and she hadn’t yet undergone her metamorphosis into Sanctuary, but Mary Lynn was often at the dock, ready to hop on her for another adventure.

Mary Lynn is a Santa Cruz/Sacramento hybrid, splitting her time between the two very different places. Happy wherever she is, I can’t help but feel sorry for her when she heads home from the beach house because she’s a real water person. Who else would show up on a blustery day wearing shorts and a smile and plant herself firmly on the bow for the duration?

When she made reservations recently, Mary Lynn said she had something for us. The day of the cruise, she arrived with a large, brown paper wrapped object that I figured was either a photograph or a poster.

This is for your anniversary,” Mary Lynn announced. “Sanctuary Cruises is four years old!” Coming from a family where our parents often called us kids by each others’ names as well as those of the dogs, cats and even donkey before finally hitting on the right name, I am astounded by a person who is not only thoughtful enough to remember special dates for others, but who takes the time to commemorate them. It is a time thing. Who has time. Who takes time. Who makes time. We agreed to open the gift on our return voyage from seeing the whales.

The cruise was a hoot. Humpback whales are so rowdy and fun and we had them strutting their stuff in fine style. We saw them breach, slap their tails on the surface and spread those long, white pectoral flippers out from their bodies so that we could view them clearly underwater. As usual, Mary Lynn was at the bow, leaning on the rail with her chin on her hands, captivated. I don’t think she got to see the blue whales we’re seeing in such great numbers now along with the humpbacks, but it’s okay. She’ll be back; she never stays away long.

On the trip back to Moss Landing Harbor, passengers stretched out in lounge chairs. Others gathered to look at their digital photographs. It was time to open the present. I pulled the paper away and found a beautiful watercolor painting of our boat, Princess of Whales. Mary Lynn had painted it for us! The painting is not only beautiful and happy, it is so touching. Steph and I both let her know how dazzled we were by her skills and generosity, but Mary Lynn shrugged off the praise.

I really want to do Sanctuary, too,” the artist informed us. “I love that boat.”

I carried the watercolor around the boat and showed it off, joking with the passengers by saying, “Look what Mary Lynn brought us for our company’s anniversary. What did you bring us?” In fact, we have received many gifts from passengers who have become friends. Hand-painted cards, books, jewelry, tapes and more have been smuggled aboard for us which is a wonderful compliment. I hope it signifies an acknowledgement that we have given something of value to each of our passengers.

Looking out over the water at the riot of sea life and explaining a little bit of how it’s all connected--opening that door to nature’s soul for our passengers--is a huge part of what we do. It’s deeply gratifying to share that special time away from shore with people whose passion matches our own. See you out there.

Summer is in full bloom on the Bay! We're seeing blue whales, humpback whales, Risso's dolphins, minke whales and more on our cruises. The blues are building in numbers and we've seen several of them most days the past week.

6/27/03: Big Things on the Bay
The past few weeks, we’ve seen large concentrations of krill on the bay and several kinds of whales. In addition to large numbers of humpbacks (at least 15 and maybe 20 on Wednesday), we have spotted a minke (pronounced mink’ kee) whale and what Steph says is the largest blue whale he’s ever seen.

Most people know krill is a building block in the food chain out there. They can probably tell you it’s a small crustacean similar to a shrimp and about the length of the first joint on your little finger. But have they ever looked in the dark little beady eyes of a krill? Our passengers have. As we’ve entered the area with feeding whales, if krill has been at the surface, we’ve grabbed our fine mesh net and scooped some up into a bucket of seawater.

There is some humor in whales going one direction and our boat heading the other way, stealthily approaching what looks like a ball of bees buzzing in the water, if you can see it at all from your vantage point. Perplexed passengers who thought they were just on a whale watching cruise stand on the decks, cameras in hand, looking back at the whales then forward at the alleged swarm of krill. But then they get into it. They see what Steph has been describing, the thrill of the hunt overcomes them and as I try to position myself for the grab, they’re jostling out of my way and encouraging me.

When the wriggling little pink mass comes on board and is deposited in the bucket, people rush up to peer in. Some take pictures, some take videos. Once I’ve roamed the boat and shown our catch off to everyone, I pour the water and krill back into the bay. The most recent time I did this, one little guy refused to leave and had to be ejected. With a trio of humpbacks lunge feeding all around us, who could blame him? Humpbacks are an endangered species but on this day, so was he.

Another small creature we’ve been fascinated by is Velella velella, By-the-Wind Sailors or By-the-Lee Sailors. These jelly-like creatures have been sailing our waters the past few months and although they look like bubbles on the surface, they’re really complex, beautiful compositions that bear a closer look. We’ve netted a few and taken them around the boat as well so people can see the rigid sail attached to their backs at a 45 degree angle and underneath, the mouth. One that Steph brought aboard had a tiny fish which it was eating and it’s shown here. To see this picture much larger, go to our web site and click on the Other Creatures gallery. Find the sailor and click on that shot.

The whales have been a hoot. Humpbacks are feeding with abandon and we’ve been overwhelmed by the fun of watching and photographing them. Our Wednesday cruises with the Camp S.E.A. Lab kids have all had spectacular sightings and Steph’s reported the same on the cruises he runs without me. We have been seeing an elusive minke whale but there’s no tracking them. This explains their nickname of slinky minke. Usually we see a bit of the back and dorsal fin and that’s it. But yesterday, it surfaced right at the boat and one passenger got a great shot of it. We’ll probably use it for an update later, so stay tuned.

I spent from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. last night in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council meeting as we tried to wrap our minds around the many complicated issues addressed for the update of the management plan. I’m going back today for more of the same. The staff and volunteers have done an incredible job, just incredible sorting it all out. Of the many proposed changes, the most controversial is whether personal water craft (PWC’s, Jet Skis and their like) should be allowed at Mavericks for tow-in surfing on the monster waves that form on several winter days a year. There are only three places in the world where waves grow to such huge proportions and Mavericks is one of the most accessible so competitions are held there.

All PWC’s were banned from the Sanctuary except in small, designated zones that were far from sensitive areas. Mavericks is located just outside of and to the northwest of Pillar Point Harbor. Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is just inshore of the break and there is ongoing discussion about disruption to wild life there.

While a surfer could in theory paddle way around the Mavericks break then approach it from seaward, the time and energy it would take is considerable. Because the strict, outdated definition of a PWC for the Sanctuary’s use only included the smaller craft manufactured at the time the regulations were designed, larger multiple rider PWC’s have slipped through the loophole and tow-in surfing has been going on there. With the revision of the management plan, the question is whether to ban all PWC’s everywhere in the Sanctuary except in the approved zones (this doesn’t include Mavericks) or to allow very limited access for Mavericks only. (There also is a request to okay training sessions for search and rescue PWC’s outside of the approved zones, but this seems to be an acceptable proposition and hasn’t caught the wildfire of attention and passion Mavericks tow-in surfing has.)

Tow-in surfing is gaining in popularity all over and on all wave sizes, so it’s not just a Mavericks anomaly. Surfers are split on tow-in surfing. Many are against PWC’s and voice strong discontent over the noise and danger of these powerful and highly maneuverable craft in and around the waves they use muscle power to get to. Others like the fact they can ride more waves in less time by hitching rides back out, but at what cost to the peace and enjoyment of the muscle powered surfer and others? What about sea life out there? Harbor porpoise and bottlenose dolphins are near shore creatures and often found in and near the surf zone. If PWC’s are banned from all of the Sanctuary, or allowed only at Mavericks and only on big days, perhaps the rest of the Sanctuary will be the only place where surfers can go to avoid them.

Next month, we will evaluate constituents’ opinions and put together proposals for the Sanctuary’s superintendent. I have received many emails about PWC’s from the SAC email list and I’d like to know what you think. Let those of us on the SAC know how you feel by emailing us through the MBNMS web site.

Please give thoughtful, detailed reasoning on why you feel the way you do; it will have the most impact.

Okay, back to the whales. We’re about to flip to our 10:30 departure schedule starting Tuesday, July 1st. Until then, we leave at 9:30 Tuesdays through Sundays. Tomorrow you can attend the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute Open House after our cruise. Trips are 3-5 hours long, we’re seeing very good numbers of whales and dolphins and conditions have been ducky. See you out there where the mighty krill and Velella velella roam the sea!