Humpback whales return to peak summer feeding in Peninsula waters

July 20, 2026San Francisco Peninsula

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(Megaptera novaeangliae) are feeding in the waters just off the Peninsula right now — 44 occurrences recorded in the past two months mark this as the peak of their annual summer residency here. They arrive drawn by the cold, anchovy-rich upwelling that the California Current drives along this coast each summer, a seasonal pulse of abundance that Coastal Miwok and Ohlone peoples knew intimately across millennia of living alongside these waters.

Unlike the seen foraging in the Bay this spring under conditions of ecological stress, humpbacks belong in these waters in July. The northeast Pacific population has recovered substantially since the end of commercial whaling, and their strong summer showing is one of the clearest signs that the offshore food web, for now, is still functioning.

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More about Humpback whales

Humpbacks return to offshore feeding grounds in summer strength

July 14, 2026

have been sighted 52 times since January on these offshore grounds, alongside and a in July — a sign of robust prey concentrations offshore. This month alone brought fifteen to the surface, feeding in the same waters.The return of humpbacks to reliable abundance here carries weight. These grounds made Provincetown a legendary whaling port — and by 1900, humpbacks had been hunted nearly to disappearance from the Atlantic. For most of the twentieth century, seeing one was rare.