We had a Whale of a Day! We caught up with ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins near the coast. They traveled pretty fast to the north. We set out to the west and caught up with a single Blue whale that was traveling to the north along the drop-off! We watched it go down for 5-7 min dive times which is pretty short for Blues. A small pod of Bottlenose dolphin passed the Blue whale and then went under our boat to the west. We continued to the south and another spout was sighted out to the SW. We caught up with it and were pleasantly surprised by two Blue whales surfacing. They were playing follow-the-leader as they traveled north. We turned in and sighted more dolphins out there along the way. A minke whale even popped up beside us! The afternoon trip was just as exciting! Our first sighting was a Mola mola hanging out at the surface. We got the drop-off and sighted a small pod of ~15 Offshore bottlenose dolphins. We got great looks as they popped up all around us. We sighted some fluke prints which made us slow down, then we saw a whale swimming below the surface! We thought it was Minke whale, but turned out to be a Fin whale! It was a very small juvenile Fin whale, maybe even a yearling! It surfaced next to our boat and surprised us! We watched it travel to the NW. We headed south and sighted a pod of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins traveling SW.
Sea you on the next one!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
