Virtual Whale Watching using Google Maps Satellite View
I'm not sure what inspired me to do this, but I was wondering the other day if I could possibly see a whale via the Google Maps Satellite view. In fact, I set out to be able to distinctively see any invidivual animal. I checked the San Diego Wild Animal Park, but ended up searching the seas for what you see above. It would be an interesting point to say that whales are the only animal visible via satellite at this resolution. I'm not 100% positive thats a whale, but I think its about the right size for a California Grey Whale, and its in a location thats known for its good whale watching. My criteria were: Looks like a whale, heading in the right direction (parallel to the coastline), and about the right size, and maybe even traveling in a pod. This guy is obviously alone, so I missed on that one, but there's still a lot of ocean to search. I figured they'd be about the same size as a tractor trailor, which you can see here. I also checked the islands around Seattle (San Juan Islands) for Orcas, but there wasn't much high-res satellite stuff for the water there.
NB: Google Maps Satellite view is completely missing the farallon islands!
UPDATE: I've decided that this is NOT a whale, but just a wave heading down and to the right, with the sea-foam left behind the whale. I'll keep looking and let you know if I find anything.
I spotted something that may be a pod of whales, or just some rocky islands – not sure how to tell. Go to the high res block just northwest of the pacific rim national park in BC, Canada and zoom in to near the centre of the large bay. There are three figures (2 adults, one youngster??) together with what looks like a wake behind them, then a bit south are some other figures that look less whale-like. I could be totally wrong, I just spotted these and wondered if anyone else had logged any “google satellite whales” and found your info here. What do you think? Islands?
Gord
I think you’re talking about this:
Right? Looks like a small iceburg or island to me. The wake seems enhanced by the ice in the water. I assume its winter time.
Remember that when you’re looking for whales — they’re gonna be small. Go and find a small boat somewhere, and imagine that the image of the whale is going to be about that big. I’d say 15-20 pixels big when you’re zoomed *all* the way in. Not nearly as big as the things in this picture…
Hi there!
If you go to the island of Honolulo on Google Earth, you will find two righ resolution pictures in the north – one is blue, the other one more greyish. On that latter one I found some whale like shapes in the water. Let me know what you think about this!
Katja
Can you be more specific? I looked around a little bit in the grey area, but had a hard time seeing anything whale-like. If you can find it again, just use the button in the upper right that says “link to this page” and then copy the URL from the address bar, and I’ll take a look at it.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Honolulu&ll=21.719318,-158.145447&spn=0.149380,0.234180&t=k&hl=en
This is not very clear, however, at least not on the computer I’m sitting at right now. I downloaded Google Earth onto my notebook, and the shapes are much more distinct there, the sea being of a much lighter tone.
I’m interested in any whale sightings from satellite pictures for some research. Check out the following for possibilities:
Abileah has previously looked into this:
http://www.abileah.com/DigitalOcean/DigitalOcean.html
A pic of possible whales from Google Earth
http://googlesightseeing.com/2005/07/29/whales/
And finally, check out the San Diego location on Google Earth (type in “Sea World, San Diego” and look at the large pool). I can make our four of their killer whales.
Use the Tools->Measure feature of Google Earth to see if any sightings are of the correct size for the area and whale species.
I havesomething like a whale in florida the only thing is i lived on the gulfcoast for years and never herd of whales there. I have contacted both the state dept and NOAA to get some answers. at first i thought it was a dolphin but it is way tooo big.
28° 9′55.53″N 82°50′44.86″W
“# Rev. Paco Says:
October 29th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
I havesomething like a whale in florida the only thing is i lived on the gulfcoast for years and never herd of whales there. I have contacted both the state dept and NOAA to get some answers. at first i thought it was a dolphin but it is way tooo big.
28° 9′55.53″N 82°50′44.86″W”
Like you said, Paco. I don’t think thats a whale, It looks more like the loch ness monster.
You can see a whole bunch of whales off the Valdes Peninsiula in Golfo Nuevo, Argentina. It’s the only place where I can definately say they are really whales
In the late 1990’s, people concerned with the future of grey whales fought a valiant and successful battle to prevent Mexican “Exportadora de Sal, S.A.” and its affiliate, “Baja Salt,” from siting a massive salt processing plant in grey whale and sea turtle spawning grounds of the coast of southern Baha Mexico.
Those who fought so valiantly may not be aware that Markos Moulitsas (DailyKos), who wants to “crash the gates” of the Democratic Party, shares a family business with the principal of Baja Salt, Carlos Alberto Delgado ZÚÑIGA. And Baja Salt is the very company that was trying to destroy the Mexican whale preserve by siting an enormous international salt processing plant there.
That’s right. It’s all documented in records of the Government of El Salvador that the “manager” of the hotel that Moulitsas calls his “family businesses,” the Suites Jaltepeque Hotel of San Salvador, El Salavador, is Carlos Alberto Delgado ZÚÑIGA. In Salvadoran Government documents, this same person is listed as “owner” of Baja Salt, a notorious polluter of grey whale and sea turtle spawning grounds in Baja Mexico.
But don’t just take my word for it. Read the article and follow the links to official Salvadoran Government and commercial websites for yourselves to confirm these astounding facts.
I know Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA says he wants to “crash the gates” of the Democratic Party and change it fundamentally. But, I’ve just learned from his speech at the Commonwealth Club that he spent six months interviewing with the US CIA in 2001. I think his motives are VERY suspect!
America DOES need fundamental changes, but the Democratic Party ought not be taken over by CIA applicants like Markos Moulitsas ZÚÑIGA who are connected to notorious polluters of grey whale spawning grounds. I can’t see how that would help the grey whales, the sea turtles, or anybody else!
Two whales north of Sandy Cape, eastern Australia: http://grputland.blogspot.com/2008/02/google-earth-shows-two-whales.html .
Check out this link of the coast of South Africa – famous whale watching spot! Whale or not?
http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=-34.441628,19.219932&spn=0.003225,0.004807&t=k&z=18
Look at the coast off central California
34 27 26.56 N
120 20 59.88 W
Looks like a 35 foot whale to me.
Dave
Good find. Here’s a direct link to what Dave is talking about:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=34+27+26.56+N+120+20+59.88+W&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=56.243791,79.277344&ie=UTF8&ll=34.457385,-120.350128&spn=0.003623,0.004839&t=h&z=18
There isn’t high enough res images to know that it’s a whale for sure, but it does look about right to me.
Hi – I think it is, I spent a lot of time looking around the same area and there are no other natural features that look similar. Fun to think it is anyway.
Keep lookin’
Dave
This appears to be a mother and cub near Puerto Madryn in Patagonia, Argentina, which is where Southern Right Whales come to bread.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=34+27+26.56+N+120+20+59.88+W&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=56.243791,79.277344&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=-42.610997,-64.835563&spn=0.003305,0.006351&z=18