The Central Coast has seen an extraordinary number of feeding frenzies this summer. Persistent afternoon northwesterly winds, abundant sunshine, and strong coastal upwelling have fueled an explosion of phytoplankton and, in turn, zooplankton. This abundance of food has attracted enormous schools of small fish—including anchovies, Pacific sardines, and Pacific mackerel—that gather near the surface in massive, tightly packed bait balls. These dense concentrations of fish attract large numbers of predators, creating the spectacular feeding frenzies shown in these images. Migrating humpback whales lunge-feed from below while thousands of seabirds, including sooty shearwaters, terns, pelicans, and gulls, dive-bomb from above. Some of these photographs feel less like scenes from nature and more like scenes from battles, like those in the paintings of the great masters exhibited at the Louver in Paris. – at Los Osos, CA