We had a FIN-omenal day on the water today! We started the day watching 3 Fin whales! They were circling around our boat allowing for us to get up close and personal! While watching a mola mola near by, a pod of ~40 Risso’s dolpins swam right up to us! We got got amazing looks as they traveled pretty quickly to the north. There was one cow/calf pair in the mix! Typically, Risso’s are pretty mellow and hardly ever travel very fast, but this pod was traveling to the north at about 5mph. We sighted another Fin whale to the north, so we got a handful of views as it surfaced for air. The Risso’s caught up with us again, but we said our goodbye’s and cruised in toward the coast. During the afternoon, we hung out with 3 more (likely) different Fin whales in the same area. They were also so friendly! We got amazing views as they played follow-the-leader and circled around our boat! They even crossed our bow while down below. We could see the outline of these massive whales and watched them swim below us. It gave us the chills as we observed their incredible curious behavior! On our way in, we sighted a flying fish and at the MB jetties we sighted 5 inshore bottlenose dolphins. On both trips, we sighted Velella velella’s everywhere went. We also sighted one Mola mola on each trip! We have one more trip to go, so we will update you soon! Our sunset trip was incredible! We set out first found another Mola mola feeding on By-the-wind-sailors! Not too far away, we sighted a huge pod of ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphins. They were racing to the north, but hung out to surf our wake and ride the bow. Then we spotted a tall, columnar spout in the distance. We caught up with more Fin whales! Two Fin whales were very friendly and popped up all around the boat! We stayed in neutral and couldn’t move, because they kept doing passes by us and under us! We watched the Fin whales with an dreamy backdrop. The sunset was beautiful! On our way in, we sighted one more spout and it ended up being the LARGEST ANIMAL ON THE PLANET! We found a single Blue whale traveling south in only 200-ft of water!

Hope to see you soon!

Naturalist,
Vanessa217A1239 2 | San Diego Whale Watch 1 217A1284 2 | San Diego Whale Watch 3 IMG 4165 2 | San Diego Whale Watch 5217A0379 2 | San Diego Whale Watch 7 IMG 3632 2 | San Diego Whale Watch 9 217A9900 2 | San Diego Whale Watch 11 217A9962 2 | San Diego Whale Watch 13