About Our Trips
Noyo Pelagics has the goal of getting birders, marine mammal enthusiasts, and the general public out to enjoy the ocean off the Mendocino Coast, become educated about our marine ecosystems, and experience new birds, whales, and other marine vertebrates as well as some invertebrates, jellies, and other mysterious creatures. All trips will include experienced birders, ornithologists, and marine mammal scientists who are pleased to share their knowledge with participants.
Trip Types
Full-day Trips
Our full-day deepwater trips will aim to spend 7-8 hours in the deep pelagic waters over Noyo Canyon and beyond. A benefit for us is that Noyo Canyon, where we typically see albatrosses and Pterodroma petrels, storm-petrels, and other pelagic birds, is only 45 minutes from the dock in favorable seas. We may also make a run southeast to the mouth of the Navarro Canyon or over Vizcaino Knoll to the Vizcaino Canyon (see map below). These trips have been popular with birders but we will also stop for whales and other marine mammals, as we have plenty of time, and where there are mammals there are usually birds. We will stop to chum with fish oil and fish parts at least 2-3 times. All full-day trips are present on our calendar.
Half-day Trips
Half-day trips will aim to spend 3-4 hours in Noyo Canyon. As clientele for these are more locally oriented, in 2026 we will be looking ahead for days of favorable weather and scheduling these from 6-10 days in advance. This strategy has worked well in the past. As with our full-day trips, we will be seeking both pelagic birds and marine mammals, and we will stop to chum with fish oil and fish parts at least once or twice. We may also add some advance-scheduled trips in the fall, when weather tends to be more favorable and there are usually more humpback, fin, and blue whales over Noyo Canyon. Avian highlights on past half-day trips have included Murphy’s Petrel, Hawaiian Petrel, and a probable Herald Petrel, as well as all three of our northern albatross species among as many as 600-1000 Black-footed Albatrosses in one day. We will also be on the lookout during half-day trips for Mola Mola (ocean sunfish), sharks, jellyfish, ctenophores, and other invertebrates to scoop up and learn about the ocean ecosystem. Our half day trips are good for school groups and children as weather and seas are usually favorable. We will announce these trips via the Mendo-Pelagics list-serve group, so sign up for this group if you’d like to receive advanced notifications of our half-day trips.
Quarter-day Trips
We may also schedule some quarter-day trips as we successfully ran in 2025. These will be 2-3 hour trips to collect water samples and other marine science data, enjoy the sea lions on the buoys, and seek any whales that may be nearby. These trips are also good for families, visitors, and locals who want to get out on the ocean for a shorter period of time, and proceeds will help support the Noyo Center for Marine Science in advancing their science and education programs. Conditions allowing, NCMS may also deploy an ROV from the deck to view seafloor organisms and activity.
School Groups
We encourage school groups and other educators to join us as well. If there is a date other than those on the 2026 Calendar that you would like to schedule a trip, please contact Anchor Charters at 707-964-4550.
Full-day & Half-day Trips
On full-day and half-day trips we will aim for the Noyo Canyon, an underwater feature that quickly reaches over 2000′ in depth as we proceed to the west. Deep, nutrient-rich waters come up the canyon, fueling a productive food web that includes pelagic species such , albatrosses, petrels, storm-petrels, shearwaters, fur seals, three species of large whales, and three species of dolphins. We are almost guaranteed to see at least some if not all of these species on our half-day trips, in many cases within an hour of leaving the dock.
Our full-day trips will aim to spend as much time as possible over the canyon and in even deeper off the continental shelf. The head of the Noyo Canyon is only 30 minutes from the harbor so, weather provided, we will be able to spend 7-8 hours over pelagic waters. The deep-water ecosystem here differs dramatically from those of near-shore waters. Many deep-water species such as Pterodroma petrels, storm-petrels, puffins, as well as sperm, pilot and beaked whales can be found over these deeper waters.
Noyo Pelagic Trip Routes (click for full map)
Part of the excitement of going into these waters is how unexplored they are and what surprises we may encounter. This is especially true of the trips from mid-October to mid-July, when few previous pelagic trips off Northern California have occurred.
On some of our half-day trips we will engage all aboard in trying to locate, identify, observe and record the behavior and ecological information about whales, dolphins and other marine mammals in our region. 90% of the ~26,000 humpback whales in the Northeastern Pacific are known individuals with sighting histories. Relatively little data has been gathered about humpback whales off the shore of Mendocino County and these citizen science excursions will endeavor to fill that knowledge gap about this charismatic species that is so rewarding to observe. Noyo Center naturalists will be present with hydrophones (underwater microphones) to detect songs and other vocalizations of species and to serve as expert interpreters as you conduct marine biology field work together for the day.
The following is a list of pelagic species that have been seen off northern California (Sonoma to Del Norte counties) and that we could encounter on our trips, especially in the indicated time periods. Note some of the month ranges are tentative and will be revised as we learn more! For more information on recent and past sightings from Noyo Harbor, see our Trip Reports page.
Sighting Scale
C = Common, FC = Fairly Common, U = Uncommon, R = Rare
