A Whale of a story!

Walked to the end of the path by the breakwater about 7PM this evening.  (I live in Marina del Rey, CA)

This is what we saw about 50 feet from us:



We knew he was going to surface when we saw these bubbles and ring:



Below the surface:




He was gorgeous and awesome in a barnacle crusted way.



He was right inside the breakwater eating little fishies.



This is his back. We never got to see his tail out of the water.



Very cool.

Enjoy, I did!

Awesome, just awesome!!

wow.

Wow.  I've never seen a whale.  That's cool that you can just walk down to the shore and see one.

mar52, I second the WOW!  Thanks for sharing. 

Very nice way to end the day Mar.

great pictures
the world is full of nice surprises like this.

Can't wait to see Sharon's photos. We both brought our cameras. The whale has been playing in the Marina for 3 weeks.  I must have taken 30 photos before my batteries died.

He's been inside the breakwater for 3 weeks.  He's free to leave and has swam up to Santa Monica but he keeps returning.  Those little fishies must taste good.

I might go again tonight with one of my neighbors.

We could hear the seals barking on the breakwater but couldn't see them.

It was really exciting. We had gone the night before with the dogs but didn't walk out far enough to see it.

Double-triple WOW.  So what does that sound like when he breaks the surface?  I can't imagine.  I'm so glad y'all had your cameras!

The Marina being one of the largest Boat harbors in the country, what's being done to protect the big guy, and the boats?

Really nice shots Mar52 especially that first one. We saw a plethora of all types of whales on an Alaskan cruise but something about one coming into a harbor seems more exciting. It just seems more intimate.

I assume he came to town to visit WJ's smoothie place?

Beautiful pics and thanks for sharing!

That's awesome, mar52, great pictures.

I have always wanted to see whales live.  I have seen the sea lions in San Fran and the seals up and down the coast but never whales.
 
Great shots
Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Ah, the sound.  What I heard was gasping and awe-ing and the sound of a huge mammal gracefully coming up through the water.

The spouting off (what do you call that?) was wonderful.  I tried to get that with each snap but both the camera and I are slow.

Then I tried anticapating the spout from the bubble ring in the water.   I was not good at my timing.

Tonight I'm going to try again if he's there.

Wow!

If only I could have seen that when I was out there 2 months ago!

That really would have blown me away.

Beautiful!!!!

When I visited California 5 years ago, we went to see a friend in LaJolla-we had lunch and then went to the beach-we were lucky enough to see whales migrating that day-cool stuff!!!

The whale was so cool that I had to go back last night .

We walked all the way to the end of the channel and didn't see any sign of the whale.



There were a lot of pelicans on the breakwater. They certainly leave their mark.



They are beautiful in flight



We were standing out there a long time with no hint of a whale, kind of depressed when I saw this. Isn't he/she cute? I was just fast enough to click the camera when he/she dove under never to be seen again.



We continued to wait, because yesterday we saw the whale close to sundown.  

While waiting we thought we saw him, but it was porpoise or dolphins. I don't know which we have here. I was again amazed that they were inside of the breakwater. I wasn’t fast enough to get a picture of them out of the water. So graceful!



We stood there watching the porpoises and the channel hoping for a glimpse of the whale.

Then I saw a spout on the other side of the channel. He was entering from the ocean on the south side! He was too far away for any good pictures, but my nieghbor got to see him! She was jealous that we got to see him the night before.

Then he started getting closer. I was hoping that he'd come in to the channel like last night, but instead, he swam the length of the breakwater, across to the north entrance to the marina. I got one good shot of him leaving.  



It was just as amazing as last night. I never knew there was so much to see in the marina! It’s usually just party animals.

For a perfect finish we had a magnificent sunset.

Once again, great pictures!

Wonderful pics!!I felt like I was there...

Mother Nature sure can put on a beautiful show! Thank you for sharing these pic's. Must be breath taking to see in person.

I really love your sea lion picture Marlene--so cute!

And I thought watching the manatess by my house was cool!..Thats impressive..... I could only get a shot of the manatee's tail as they submerged.........

Looks delicious. It ought to feed a pretty large party.

I know this isn't very PC in the US, but I used to eat whale quite a bit when I lived in Japan.

Absolutely delicious.