Whale Watching in Monterey

We went whale watching in Monterey, CA last Wednesday. We ferried out from shore almost an hour on choppy seas. When we were over a submarine canyon, we lingered for about an hour. During that time, we had about 8 North Pacific Blue Whale sitings. They don't fluke but we could see their expansive blue-ish backs and the spray from their blow-holes. We had at least 20 Humpback sitings too. My two favorites sights of the day were: seeing a Humpback beat its tale back and forth to communicate with its peers; and seeing a Humpback's mouth wide open close to the boat. So pink! The skipper said there are only about 5000 North Pacific Blue Whales left---their numbers having been drastically reduced over the last 100 years. The biggest factor in that was 19th century whale hunting for oil. Has anyone else been whale-watching this summer? It's the best whale-watching year in a couple decades in the Monterey area due to a massive upwelling of marine nutrients there.