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The Humpback Whale and
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About one-third of the world's population of humpback whales can be found in the North Pacific Ocean, and whale-watching is a very popular activity along the Pacific Coast from Puget Sound in Washington down to southern California and on into Mexico. This humpback's tail was photographed in Monterey Bay but you can get equally good sightings in many places, either by taking a whale-watching cruise or watching from the shore.If you see humpbacks hitting the water surface with their flukes or their flippers, they're probably fishing. The effect of these slaps (a mature humpback weighs almost 80,000 lbs) is to stun the fish in the vicinity, making for an easy meal for the whale.
Another fishing technique used by groups of humpbacks working together is known as bubble net fishing. The whales swim in circles while blowing bubbles, forming a ring that the fish are reluctant to penetrate. The whales close in and make the circle smaller and smaller, while other whales swim underneath to keep the fish trapped. Then suddenly the whales will break and swim right through the packed schools of fish, mouths open to swallow the rich pickings.
See the Whale Watching in California page.
Go from the Humpback Whale page
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Popular Pages
The most popular pages on Pacific Coast Highway Travel right now are:
Drive the Pacific Coast Highway
Whale Watching in California
Where to Stay on the PCH
Pacific Coast Highway Maps
PCH Hotels Guide
To help you in choosing your Pacific Coast Highway hotel, guesthouse, inn, bed-and-breakfast, resort, motel or other accommodations, we've prepared our Pacific Coast Highway Hotels Guide ebook. In it we do mini-reviews of accommodations along the Highway, from Seattle to San Diego, through Washington, Oregon, and California.
For the 2011 edition we added new hotels, including a special 50-hotel section covering California’s wine country of Napa, Sonoma, and Paso Robles - by far the most popular diversion from the PCH drive. In all there are over 200 hotels listed, complete with 8 pages of color maps showing the towns where our recommended hotels can be found. There are both alphabetical and geographical indexes, helping you plan your journey.
We also include color photos of all the hotels that are our Personal Favorites. Here's the link to
read more about our ebook guide to Pacific Coast Highway hotels
Or you can buy it here for $2.99:
KINDLE EDITION
The Hotels Guide is also available but without the maps and color photos in the US Kindle Store for $4.99 and in the UK Kindle Store at a price based on the US price.
NOOK EDITION
The guide is also available at Barnes and Noble for the Nook.
PAPERBACK EDITION
If you want a printed edition without color photos and with only black and white maps, it costs $8.99 at the Amazon US store.
We've also published our PCH Hotels Guide as an app in the Apple Store.
You can buy it here and
read about it here.
