Tag Archives: Naked Whale Research

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Several Coast residents were treated to the sight of two dozen or so Dolphins obviously feeding, as they stayed for over three hours. Ken Bailey took this photo of what I think are Pacific White-sided Dolphins. However, Jodi Smith, of Naked Whale Research, looked at the photos and she says they are Risso's Dolphins. One can be seen breaching.

Pacific White-sided Dolphin breaching by Ken Bailey

Joel Chaban got a photo of their dorsal fins, which you can see slope backward at the top.

Dolphins feeding at Cooks Beach by Joel Chaban

These Dolphins eat mostly squid and some medium-sized fish.  They are not as acrobatic as Pacific White-sided Dolphins but young Risso's Dolphins can be seen breaching, as in Ken's photo.

To learn more about whales, especially Killer Whales, here is the link to Jodi Smith's Naked Whale Research website: http://www.nakedwhaleresearch.org/

Thanks to Ken and Joel for allowing me to share their photos with you here. To see more of Ken's nature photography, here is his website: http://www.seadreams.org/

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With the ocean looking like glass last Saturday, there were a lot of great sightings. The greatest of them all was the sighting of Blue Whales. A mother and her calf were seen off of The Sea Ranch.

Jodi Smith, of Naked Whale Research, went out of Fort Bragg and found another Blue Whale.

Blue Whales are the largest animal on earth. And they are on the endangered species list, as their recovery from the days of whaling has been slow. To see a mother with a calf is such a good sign.
To Jodi's joy she also saw several Northern Right Whale Dophins.
 They rose next to the boat and rode the bow for a while. You can read about Jodi's excellent day on the water on her blog at: http://orcinusorca.wix.com/nawhare-temp/apps/blog
And to learn more about Jodi's Naked Whale Research, which studies Killer Whales, here is that website:
Thanks to Jodi for allowing me to share her photos with you here.

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Jodi C. Smith is the Executive Director of Naked Whale Research. She has relocated to the Irish Beach area to study the endangered Southern Resident pods of Killer Whales - known as J, K and L pods. These Orcas are on the move. They have spent the summer months south of Vancouver Island and in Puget Sound. Now they are passing by the Mendonoma Coast. On Jan. 10th K pod was spotted a mile off of Little River. Jodi went out in a boat to get these photos. As you can probably tell, the seas were rough.

This last photo shows the very tall dorsal fin. According to Jodi these Orcas are specialized fish eaters, with Chinook salmon being their favorite.

Today the weather is clear  with few whitecaps on the ocean - perfect weather for spotting Gray Whales and hopefully K pod! Thanks to Jodi for allowing me to share her photos with you. To learn more about her work, here's her website: http://www.nakedwhaleresearch.org/ You can also follow her blog on this website.