Friday, March 15, 2024
Splashy seas and a whale making a splash!
During our morning trip, we set out and found a pod of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins to the north of us! They were feeding on a bail ball of small schooling fish! We could see the dolphins wack the fish out of the water. We continued out and sighted a bunch of birds diving in the water close to 10-miles from shore. There we found more Long-beaked Common dolphins and a single Humpback whale! We sighted a rainblow as the whale surfaced for a breath. We saw it lunging near the surface so it was actively feeding near the birds and dolphins.
During the afternoon trip, we headed out in the rolling swell to the drop off and caught up with a full-blown feeding frenzy. Hundreds of seabirds diving in the water while ~150 Long-beaked common dolphins corraled a massive bait ball of small schooling fish. In the midst of the action was a very active humpback whale tail lobbing over and over!
The blustery conditions made for a difficult time spotting dolphins out there on our sunset trip but Capt. John spotted some BIG splashes with his high powered binos and it wound up being an ENORMOUS pod – We found the dolphins and continued our search out south west to see what else we could find. We were accompanied by this same pod of dolphins for over two whole miles!
The sunset was a STUNNER!
Naturalists,
Vanessa, Ruth & Alison
