Whales at Alder Creek

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• Well, that's TWO alive and hopefully Healthy. Thanks, BSK!

• Over my years of fishing the coast in my little "Captain Lingcod" skiff, I can tell dozens of stories about curious whales coming right up to me and looking me in the eye. Some years, when the orcas were around on the hunt, the older, more experienced gray whale mothers would take their young on their northward migration via "stealth". They would swim within the cover of the kelp forest in incredibly shallow water. When they surfaced to breathe, they did so silently, instead of blowing a spout. During these times, I would get the "company" of a whale that would surface inches from me and stick its nose over the side of my boat. On eye contact, I could sense an intelligent soul within that gazing pupil, thinking about me as much as I was thinking about it. Mother whales did not approve of their “children” playing so near a strange object like a boat. The mother would swim between me and her “baby”, and verrry gently nudge between us, easing my boat one way and the young whale the other. At first, I would be quite scared of being sunk by a whale, but after dozens of occasions like this, I became relieved to have a gentle whale mom carefully push me away from a “playful” young-one that weighed several tons! The gentle carefulness with which a whale would nudge my boat confirmed that whales are incredibly sensitive with touch. These words may seem incredulous, but the experiences were as real as the cliffs of Big Sur!

  As for the Alder Creek slide, that was the exact location where our Real Fresh Fish Company skiffs launched during the heydays of the 1990’s! Buried under the slide are a lot of salty memories!

• Wow great pictures. Now I can see why we do not want too much debris in the ocean down there. Lovely.