Dinner party at the #goldengatebridge tonight. #humpbackwhales #whales #SanFrancisco #humpback pic.twitter.com/eFUTVDOba1
β Nettie Atkisson (@AtkissonNettie) June 18, 2017
Lots of people Β including me Β got glimpses of a bunch of humpback whales hanging out around the Golden Gate Bridge on Saturday afternoon. Either a single pod or multiple pods of whales were possibly feasting just outside the Bay and just beneath the bridge, leading ABC 7 to pick up the news, and multiple others to document it on social media as well. (At least one Twitterer spotted them just outside the Bay on Friday as well.)
The video above shows what appears to be a family of four whales all directly beneath the bridge, much to the delight of tourists.
Mary Jane Schramm from the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary explains to KTVU that humpbacks usually stay in the open ocean feeding on krill, but as of last year some whales have discovered a feast of anchovies that come in closer to the Bay on incoming tides Β and Schramm says they've observed some of the same whales returning to this feeding territory from last year.
Humpbacks are on their annual migration north along the California coast to Alaska for the summer, and much like they did last year they seem to finding plenty of food around the Golden Gate, leading them into the busy shipping and boating lanes there.
Some humpbacks were spotted around this same area just a month ago.
Whales in the San Francisco Bay! pic.twitter.com/60XS51vr2h
β The Security Robot (@XenoSynthesis) June 18, 2017
I saw whales under the San Francisco Bridge!!!! pic.twitter.com/WryXhcPo6C
β Apoorv (@KulkarniApoorv) June 18, 2017
I'm such a sucker for sunsets...and whales. A pod of 5 whales were doing tricks outside San Francisco Bay, but only caught plume of breath. pic.twitter.com/vw5NNI772H
β Speedegg (@Speedegg1) June 17, 2017
Previously: Video: More Humpback Whales Pop Up In The Golden Gate