Gray whales, Common dolphins and feeding frenzies! We had two awesome trips today. During our afternoon trip, we set out to the south and hung out with a trio of Gray whales! They were southbound and cruising at 5mph! We got great looks at their big puffy spouts and their tails! We noticed another couple spouts to the south of us too! We couldn’t go any further and on our way back up north, we sighted a single Gray whale also headed south. The skies cleared for us as the sun came out! The visibility was amazing!
We had a fun Sunset cruise! Right out of the gate, we sighted a few inshore bottlenose dolphins surfing beside us. We began to cruise out when a juvenile Gray whale was sighted just outside the surf in Mission Beach! We watched cross the Mission Bay jetties and caught up with it outside OB. The bottlenose interacted with the Gray whale! We saw the gray whale rotate and lift its tail! We watched it until it went into the kelp forest! It waved goodbye by lifting its flukes for a sounding dive. We continued out and sighted another single Gray whale but we only saw its spout twice. It seemed to be giving some stealthy vibes so we left it be. Off of La Jolla, we sighted diving birds and ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphins in the Sunset! It was a breathtaking sight! We hung out and watched the birds feed right along side the Commons. The sunset was the cherry on the top!
Hope you’ll come out soon! The Gray whales are all headed south!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
