I was out on a whale watch tour with Blue Ocean Whale Watching in Moss Landing, CA. We were watching two humpback whales who were lazily swimming along when all of a sudden, both whales simultaneously breached.
They continued breaching multiple times and we noticed that in the distance, several other humpback whales within a few miles were also breaching at the same time.
A few minutes later, many of us started getting texts and news alerts about a nearby 4.7 magnitude earthquake. When we checked the timestamps on our breach photos, they matched perfectly with the underwater recordings of the earthquake captured by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s hydrophone!
You can read this more in this news story about the incident. https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/10/whales-breach-like-crazy-moments-after-earthquake
-Erin
This post was adapted from a voice recording in episode 65 of the Whale Tales Podcast, listen here.
Wow! Animals and birds do behave differently during storms and earthquakes. To be there on the water during an earthquake and seeing the humpbacks breach at the same time must have been an incredible experience 🐋💙