Elusive creatures make ‘incredibly rare’ appearance off California coast, photos show
Creatures that spend most of their time diving deep below the ocean’s surface made a rare appearance off California’s coast, photos show.
Tour goers with Monterey Bay Whale Watch were lucky enough to catch an “incredibly rare sighting” of a pod of Cuvier’s beaked whales, according to a July 5 post on Facebook.
Cuvier’s beaked whales are rarely spotted swimming in the open ocean because they can hold their breath for four hours and typically dwell at deep ocean depths, the group told McClatchy News in a Facebook message.
Monterey Bay Whale Watch spots the whales maybe once a year, sometimes even going one or two years without seeing them at all.
Photos show the tan-colored whales bobbing across the surface, with one whale’s pale beak visible in the photo.
“We were very fortunate to get a look at this group as they were traveling very fast and can dive for 40 minutes to depths of over 3,000 feet!” officials with the group said in the post. “The record for the deepest dive for a Cuvier’s beaked whale is 9,816 feet (nearly 2 miles) and the longest dive record is 222 minutes” — which is actually the deepest and longest dive of any mammal species, according to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation.
People shared their delight in comments on the post.
“Wow, so exciting to find those rare whales!” one said.
Someone else remarked about “so many different whales in the bay” so far this summer.
“You truly never know what you might find when you explore the bay with us!” the group said.
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