June 22, 2023

We made some more dolphriends and whale friends today out in the big blue ocean! We saw ~75 long-beaked common dolphins around the beginning of our morning trip. We also got some close looks at 2 blue whales and spotted another blue whale further out in the distance. Then, on the way back we came across a pod of ~100 short-beaked common dolphins.

During our afternoon trip, we saw another pod of ~100 bottlenose dolphins. Many of these dolphins were surfing our bow and boat’s wake. We also saw 3 more blue whales located near the continental shelf! On our way back to shore, we encountered a pod of ~80 long-beaked common dolphins.

Our sunset trip was NAUTICAL! Mama ocean was angry today but even the rough conditions couldn’t stop us from finding life in the sea! We saw a blue whale doing some strange dive intervals but it was kind enough to show us a fluke! We found a very active feeding frenzy, a group of ~ 30 long beaked common dolphins were working a baitball to the surface, it was so dense that you could see the dark shadow of small bait fish just below the surface! There were tons of pelicans and gulls diving in to feast with the dolphins.

We got a classic San Diego sunset to top it all off!

Naturalists,

Vanessa, Alison and Melissa