Sunday morning’s light drizzle and bumpy water apparently discouraged the usual weekend crowd that departs King Harbor in search of migrating whales this time of year.
The Redondo Beach Ocean Kayaking Club expected a dozen members to meet at the hand launch Sunday morning, but only four showed. Robbie Meistrell invited eight friends to go out on his power boat Ocean Blue, but only three showed.
ET Surfboard shaper Pat Ryan was one of the few stand-up paddlers who left the harbor and there were just three prone paddlers, all female.
Fortunately, just about everyone who did go looking for whales had cameras, because without photographs, people might not believe the wildlife show that took place over the Redondo Canyon, just one and a half miles off Redondo Beach.
A lone adult humpback whale, and a mother swimming with her calf breached over half a dozen times between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., sometimes in tandem, coming almost completely out of the water and landing with a belly flop that sent walls of water cascading over the paddlers.
Ryan, who was on a narrow racing board he recently shaped, repeatedly retreated to his knees to keep from being toppled by the wash.
The baleen whales have 15-foot long pectoral fins to help propel them out of the water. They grow to 40 to 50 feet in length and up to four tons.
Meistrell has been whale watching on Ocean Blue every day this week and on the ocean every winter of his life. He is the president of Dive N’ Surf, which was founded by his father Bob and uncle Bill. He said he’s seen whales breech many times, but never in multiple successions.
Kayaker Fred Erickson has been out whale watching every Sunday for the past three winters and also said he’s seen whales breech before, but never multiple times. Nor had he ever seen humpbacks slap the water with their flukes, as they did over and over Sunday morning.
The three humpbacks have been hanging out over canyon since the start of the year, according to Eric Martin of the Manhattan Beach Pier Roundhouse Aquarium. The canyon reaches a depth of 440 meters, which is equal to the height of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. ER
