We had a whale of a day! We set out this morning and were surrounded by fog, even here in Mission Bay! We set out to the west, hoping we would find an open patch of clear visibility. Sure enough, we hung out with a Mola mola, and a huge pod of ~500 Short-beaked Common dolphins! We had close to 2-miles of visibility on the drop-off! There were some high flyers! They launched out of the water and some breached an porpoised. There were about 10 cow/calf pairs in the mix. On the afternoon tour, we set out to the NW and sighted a small pod of ~20 Long-beaked Common dolphins. They were hanging out under some diving birds. We found ourselves outside of Torrey Pines, and sighted a big pod of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins and a Bryde’s whale! It seemed to be following the dolphins around. It actually became a little curious a surfaced about 50yards from the boat and crossed our bow. We waved goodbye and enjoyed the amazing visibility! The waters were so smooth and glassy too! The sunset trip was incredible! We set out to the west and sighted a Bryde’s whale on the drop-off cruising very slowly to the south. It even crossed our bow once! We enjoyed watching it come up for 3 breaths and go down for a 3 to 8 min dive. We zoomed to the north along the drop-off and sighted a huge pod of ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphins racing to the north under some diving birds. Our trip home was beyond amazing! We enjoyed a fiery sunset all the way home!
Hope you’ll join us soon…the baleen whale sightings seem to be picking up as many of them are heading back down south to warmer waters!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
