The incident is one of several recent close calls in the area, where a small pod of humpback whales has been surface lunge-feeding on anchovies unusually close to shore.
They’ve become a major draw for kayakers and boaters and at least one kayaker has been capsized, and a sailboat was struck by a whale.
“We had our enforcement guy out on the Harbor Patrol boat yesterday trying to clear people away from the whales,” Paul Michel, superintendent for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, told the Santa Cruz Sentinel on Wednesday.
“We were out there again today on the water but of course the whales moved off. Once the bait fish went away the small pod dispersed. Wherever there is food they will be, so they could come back and we will keep enforcement going through the weekend.”
People for the most part were being cooperative.
Humpback whales, which can measure to 50 feet and weigh 40 tons, are easy to locate because while feeding, they herd giant schools of anchovies to the surface, and birds diving on the bait fish give away the presence of whales. When the whales are lunge-feeding vertically, breaking the surface with open mouths spilling with anchovies, they’re nearly impossible to miss from any nearby vantage point.
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