It was a great day to be out on the water! We started the day off with a fun morning tour. Close to 11-miles from shore, we encountered a pair of Fin whales that were traveling north. They never went down for a deep sounding dive! They hung out near the surface. We got see their distinctive lower right, white jaw! There were Short-beaked Common dolphins just west of them. A handful of those shorties passed by our boat. During the afternoon trip, the wildlife seemed to be busy elsewhere. We sighted a small pod of ~5 Short-beaked Common dolphins that zoomed to the south. During the afternoon tour, we got super lucky and sighted some big splashes out near the drop-off. We caught up with a couple of Humpback whales that were exhibiting a lot surface-active behaviors! They were tail-lobbing and breaching out in the distance. After catching up to them, we waited for them to surface from a deep dive and they surprised us by popping up right next to the boat! We were in neutral the whole time and respected their space. We even got a nice whiff of their fishy breath! We left the zone, and one of them breached! Only a handful of passengers were lucky to witness it! On the way in, 5-7 Inshore bottlenose dolphins were sighted at the jetties It was a trip to remember!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
