Could have fooled us! We thought it was HUMPday! We were so lucky and caught up with Humpbacks and Common dolphins today! During our afternoon cruise, we set out to the west and sighted a single Humpback traveling south, around the drop-off! It surfaced for about 8 breaths and went down for 5-8min dives. We got to see its tail on almost every dive! It even mugged us! It popped it up behind us, at only 10-ft from the boat! Then it went under our boat and surfaced 20-ft in front of us!
During our Sunset cruise, we set out to the west and encountered many birds diving in the water feeding on bait balls. We got to the drop-off found a huge feeding frenzy of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins, 6 California sea lions, and hundreds of birds! We were enjoying all the activity, when Captain Ryan sighted a spout to the north! We caught up with a trio of Humpbacks! There was a cow/calf pair and likely a male adult escort! This time a year many of the Humpbacks are headed south to their breeding zones and we can see male escorts hanging out with cow/calf pairs, for a chance to mate with the mother down south. The escort can help protect the cow/calf pair as well! The adult male lifted its flukes on its sounding dives, while the cow/calf pair didn’t show their flukes. The sunset was gorgeous!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
