7 North Bound 0 South Bound 6 hrs

Busy action packed day as migrating gray whales navigated through the hectic weekend water activities. A yellow smog haze of air pollution hugged the horizon from all vantage points. The ocean was calm with great visibility and low to no wind. A warm sunny 70 degrees felt much warmer sans wind and brought out the beach goers including kayakers, boaters, fisherman, paddle boarders, and swimmers.

First sighting was low profile trio of whales including one thin whale that stayed 500 yards off shore traveled through quickly thanks to a group of LOUD ski doo racers who zipped across the transect in all directions keeping wildlife at bay and disturbing the resting pelicans on several occasion..

Next out from off shore were the kayakers and paddle boarders who decided to sit in Pirates Cove and wait for the whales to come, not realizing this behavior keeps the whales moving and traveling through rather than stopping. Thankfully the bottle nose dolphins aren’t effected and still chase bait balls, this time bringing Pacific White Sided Dolphins in close which was a huge rare treat to see!

The second sighting was another trio of whales with one thin adult, kept traveling through due to paddlers and kayakers in Pirates Cove. When the paddlers and kayakers came in, a fast south bound lobster boat went right over the close shore whale path and after the boat passed, one whale in the trio popped up 200 yds further off shore and the paddlers went back out to chase the whales. One whale was healthy and the other two were thin with sunken cervical areas and scapular depressions.

A large catamaran came through traveling slowly hugging the shore 300 yds. The trio of whales that were chased at the point popped up past the buoy heading north west while the catamaran slowly went through and passed the point.

Baywatch Malibu had two rescues back to back. Starting with a paddle boarder who drifted past bird rock just as the wind picked up and white caps filled the area. The paddler was brought back closer and able to get back to shore safely. A short while later baywatch malibu was back with lights on to rescue a group of three scuba divers out near bird rock (pinnacles). The scuba divers were brought closer to shore in much rougher seas then they left and were able to also make it back to shore safely.

On this bright sunny day brightly colored airplanes are a delight to see but the loud noise and low flybys can cause the whales to dive deep and continue on the migration.

Local rock climber (Greg) delights beach goers with a superman rappelling technique. Greg has been honing this skill for years- it is obviously not something an inexperienced or new rock climber should attempt to try.