Tuesday, August 22, 2023
The Pacific Ocean was teaming with life today! During our afternoon trip, we headed out west and then travelled north towards La Jolla. We were about 8 miles offshore. We also a red tide today, most likely caused by the rainfall event during hurricane Hillary. At first, we encountered plenty of bird activity seeing various species of sea birds feeding on small schooling fish, which led us to a massive pod of ~600 long-beaked common dolphins. Then, in the middle of the dolphin and bird feeding frenzy, we also spotted a humpback whale! We also saw some California sea lions joining in on the fun. Dolphinitely a NatGeo moment! The humpback whale came up close to our boat many times. It was so exciting to see the humpback whale raise its flukes and it even starting to roll around and play with kelp.
During our sunset trip, we went back towards the general area in hopes to find more marine life. This particular area must have been incredibly abundant with food! We encountered a very large pod of ~300 long-beaked common dolphins even before we reached the drop-off. They escorted us in the direction towards a mega pod of ~1000 long-beaked common dolphins! We also saw plenty of bird activity during the sunset trip. Once again, we spotted another humpback whale in the middle of the feeding frenzy! We got amazing close up looks. It was truly such a magical day out on the Pacific Ocean. The sunset was incredible as well. We hope to see you all aboard the Privateer soon.
Naturalist,
Melissa
