Marine Mammals of the Pacific 8/05

With only a few days to spare I decided to do a wham-bam tour of the amazing marine mammals of the American West Coast. I was psyched! Pumped up. With the base line to "Eye of the Tiger" pulsing in my head, I drove my rental car northward, determined to catch a glimpse.

All told I encountered 7 species of large mammal that I had never seen before in the wild. It was absolutely incredible. I'll be counting them down here roughly in order of size, smallest to largest. The first (and possibly cutest) can be found in the underwater kelp forests shown above.

Uh, no, you're right. This is not a picture of a mammal. It's a fish. Good catch. Man, I can't get anything past you. It's not even a real kelp forest. In fact, it was shot in the Monterey Aquarium. The next page however ...

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Species: Rockfish (Sebastes spp.)
Location: Monterey Bay Aquarium. Monterey, California, USA (map)