We had an action-packed afternoon trip! We sighted a single Gray whale in Mission Bay! It slowly milled about outside of Quivira basin. We said goodbye and pushed through the lumpy seas to the west. We sighted a Stinky Minke just a mile from the drop-off! It was a bit tricky to keep track of, but we could definitely smell its breath! We continued on and sighted hundreds of birds diving to the west of us! Underneath them there were 500 Long-beaked Common dolphins cruising to the west! They raced toward us and we saw them at our bow and in our wake! We sighted a quad pod of northbound Gray whales! We enjoyed the smoother ride home and sighted a few inshore bottlenose dolphins at the jetties. The single Gray whale moved closer to the ocean by the time we caught up with it again!
Whale, whale, whale, exciting times on the water today! We encountered the same juvenile Gray whale seen yesterday hanging out in Mission Bay. It stayed in the same general area near the rocks. Sometimes juvenile Gray whales will get confused and find themselves in bays and coastal inlets. Usually they will find their way back out to sea. Then, we traveled past 3 miles and sighted a single spout from another Gray whale, heading southbound. We’ve been seeing more northbound Gray whales recently so this was somewhat unusual. Seems like this Gray whale was on a mission to make it down south as soon as possible. Once we passed the drop-off, we encountered a pod of ~25 offshore bottlenose dolphins. Many of them were bow-riding and displaying mini spouts. We hope you guys can join us for a salty adventure on the Pacific Ocean soon.
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa
