Humpback Whale Lunge Video 9/17/25

I was out on the Pacifica Pier videoing the Humpback Whales. Earlier I posted a short clip of a gull riding on the back of a Humpback. Here I have a collection of a few of the lunges I was able to capture. Later I will likely post some of the fluke and fin action clips. There was also a large flock of cormorants floating in the area, and occasionally the whales were feeding in-and-around the flock. As I was going through the video I noticed one of the whales has quite a large gash on its side. You can see that at 1min21sec into the clip.

In a few of the shots you can see a bit of the "fish flash" as the Humpback is coming up. This happens as the bait fish (primarily anchovies) scramble to get away from the whale, and end up bursting up-and-out of the water en masse.

I did my best to keep the video relatively smooth, but it's difficult when you're shooting with a long lens on a monopod and you generally have no idea when or where one of these guys is going to pop its head up.