Tag Archives: Noyo Harbor

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Shari Goforth headed out in two weeks ago on a Saturday for a pelagic trip out of Noyo Harbor on The Kraken along with 24 other seafarers. Many on board were birders, excited to see different kinds of petrels, albatrosses, skua and terns. Shari is mostly on the trip to spot whales. A blue whale was seen and Pacific white-sided dolphins. And humpbacks! Shari wrote, “It was a gray day, so here are a few photos that are not fogged-in. We were about from eight miles from the red and white whistle buoy outside Noyo Harbor when we encountered a group of humpback whales.”

Look at the green light on the water on the lower right. It's the sun reflected on the whale's body that is underwater. Shari says they can often see a whale before it spouts by noting this green reflection.

Shari got a clear photo of a distinctive fluke and she sent it in to Happy Whale to see if they had a previous identification of this particular whale. They did. Shari wrote, “That fluke is CRC-20332, Cascadia Research collective’s research number,  no nickname, first recorded off Baja 01-03-2022, the only sighting before our photo record on 08-17-2025."

Another photo is of a humpback rostrum showing the mouth nearly closed after a lunge feeding event with one other whale. The barnacles visible on the lower mandible pouch show their exposed cirri, the barnacles’ feeding appendages. Needless to say, it was a great trip!”

Thanks to Shari for allowing me to share her photos with you here. If you'd like to learn more about the pelagic trips out of Noyo Harbor, here is the link: http://noyopelagics.com

To be on their mailing list, you can sign up here: https://groups.io/g/Mendocino-Pelagics

The fog bank is smaller and a ways out over the ocean. Breezy sunny weather happening now!

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Bill Mabie and Denise Mendoza were up at Noyo Harbor several weeks ago. Bill wrote, “We were having lunch at Sea Pal Cove and we saw something that surprised us. A Harbor Seal was swimming by, but then a Sea Lion showed up. At first we thought it was just playing, but then it disappeared for a short period and burst upwards breaching. Looking at the photos it appears that Sea Lion was attacking Gulls. Is that normal?”

No, something else was going on here. Bill’s photos show the Sea Lion caught some type of Skate, also called Rays. The Gulls were actually trying to steal all or part of the Sea Lion’s catch. Ryan Berger, a Marine Scientist at the Marine Mammal Center took a look at Bill’s photos. He wrote, “Most certainly you will see Gulls flying overhead when a CA Sea Lion has prey at the surface that they are breaking into smaller pieces to consume. The Gulls often fly down to pick up scraps or try and steal the fish away.”

I asked birder Tim Bray if he could identify the types of Gulls in Bill’s photos. He wrote, “All I can make out for sure is one immature Herring Gull with a yellow iris. I think there's at least one more immature Herring and one California Gull as well. Of more interest to me is the fish! It looks like a Skate, which I did not know we had in the Noyo. It makes sense though, they are often found in estuaries.”

Thanks to Bill for allowing me to share his photos with you here.

Clear and very cold this Saturday morning, with clouds coming in this afternoon. Rain is in our forecast, beginning sometime Sunday and continuing through next week. Bring it, Mother Nature! Let's break this drought!

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Ron took a boat out of Noyo Harbor. He and the others on board got to see Humpbacks and a few Blue Whales.

Here you see the behemouth spouting.

And below you can see its mottled back. Ron tells me you can identify individual Blue Whales by the patterns on its back. 

Here is the Blue Whale's very small dorsal fin.

And here's a photo of a Blue Whale's tail. 

You won't see Blue Whales come out of the water much. They don't - probably can't - breach like Humpbacks or Gray Whales as they are so huge. They are extremely endangered as they try to recover from intense whaling of years past.

A reference book I enjoy is "Whales and other Marine Mammals of California and Baja" by Tamara Eder. She writes that at birth a Blue Whale weighs about 2.5 tons and is 23 feet long. An adult can weigh up to 200 tons (181,000 kg) and be up to 110 feet (34 m) long.

I was told some years ago that if you see an island in the ocean where there wasn't one before, you've just seen a Blue Whale.

Thanks to Ron for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see much more of Ron's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.levalleyphoto.com/home/

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The Point Cabrillo Light Station is fully restored and open to the public. Dennis Latona recently visited it and the surrounding state park. It is located just north of the town of Mendocino. You can learn much more about this special place at this link: www.pointcabrillo.org

Dennis also shared this photo of Noyo Harbor at night. Located at Fort Bragg, this is an active harbor for commercial and sport fishing. There are several great seafood restaurants at the harbor too.

And here are several Does with their yearlings. We are waiting for the first fawn of the spring to be born. Any day!

Thanks to Dennis for allowing me to share his photos with you here. To see more of Dennis' nature photography, here is his website: http://www.pinenutz.com/