Visit the kelpforest....

Shortly after Avalon's birthday last summer, I bought a Groupon deal for half-price for whale watching, and bought six, thinking it could be a birthday present and she could take a friend. And of course, I almost forgot about them. They expired at the end of January, and earlier in the month, there was stormy weather and after that, a huge swell. Sunday was sold out already when I called to make reservations, so we decided they could take a day off for something educational. ;) Instead of a friend, we took John's grandmother along, as she's never seen them off this coast.

We left out of Dana Wharf Sportfishing on the F/V Dana Pride - GGma was a little surprised we went so far south as she was expecting for us to go out of Long Beach. Well, we only saw small whales. Common dolphins and bottlenose dolphins, and sea lions of course. And tons of shearwaters, seabirds that don't usually come very close to the coast. But that was fine. The kids had never been out on a boat like this before or seen wild dolphins, so it was all good. It was a nice day for it, especially for January. John's grandma had a nice time too.

And I forgot the stupid card for the big camera, so I put it away and there's only crap phone photos. Which I couldn't remember where the stupid lens was so my fat finger is in the way half the time. >:p



Sea lions on the buoy outside Dana Point Harbor.

( blurry dolphins and fingers ahoy... )

Pressure is on to lift whaling ban.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18625043.900

Given their track record with quite few of their other fisheries, I'd say the Japanese don't have a leg to stand on. Not only that, but the articles example of the taking of other large mammals is not comparable. I can't think of a single large mammal that is still taken on a commercial basis, for profit, as they are intending. Large terrestrial animals are taken mostly on an individual basis by individuals, who pay a great deal of money in fees and in other costs, and often permits are only issued by lottery.

Even commercial fishing of species such as sharks recently has come under a critical eye because they just don't reproduce themselves enough- this state does not allow landings by longliners fishing within the EEZ because of the bycatch of blue sharks. If sharks can't stand commercial fishing, what does that say for whales, whose reproductive capacity is a lot lower?

I don't see how it could possibly be profitable unless whale meat were sold at a comparable price to, say, precious metals? And no, cixel, I don't think they're amenable to breeding by humans.