10/06/2026
Today we had calm waters and were watching a large number of scattered whales feeding, interacting, slapping the water with their tails and pectoral flippers, etc.
And then a large adult, which we believe to have been a male, decided to dive and swim directly up to our boat. It put us in "whale jail" for about an hour and fifteen minutes ("whale jail" because when a whale is that close, swimming beside and under the boat, it is dangerous to the whale to try to escape, due to our propellers).
This photo shows perhaps 50 square inches of whale skin.
The photo is dominated by a nice, large, acorn barnacle. On the right side of 'ole barney, you can see a small (young) gooseneck barnacle. Goosenecks are the yellowish/brownish floppy barnacles you see under the chin of a humpback, sometimes on the pectoral flippers, sometimes on the trailing edges of flukes.
As you can clearly see in this photo they don't grow on the whale, they grow on the acorn barnacles that grow on the whale!
Then you can see a bunch of whale lice, starting with an adult in the lower left part of the frame. Right next to the acorn barnacle you can see another adult-sized lice, and a bunch of baby lice!
Not to be nitpicky (kudos if you understand the joke here), but these aren't lice as we think of them, which are parasitic insects.
The lice on marine mammals are crab-ilke crustaceans. You can see how their feet are anchored into the skin, so they aren't torn off the whale as it swims.
Last but not least, whales have hair, and you can see some hairs in this photo. They are very sparse. Remember this mnemonic to help remember what all mammals share: Warm-blooded, Hair, Air-breathing, Live birth, Eats milk. WHALE!
Acorn barnacles are generally around 3 inches across, for reference.
Remember, Fast Raft is the ORIGINAL small boat whale watching company on Monterey Bay.
Book online at FastRaft dot com or 🔗 link in bio
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