We had a FIN-tastic Friday aboard the Privateer! We caught up with a Fin whale on both of our tours today! During the morning trip, we set out to the La Jolla! Out there we sighted a huge pod of ~400 Long-beaked Common dolphins cruising to the north. We watched them surf our wake and ride the bow! So many tiny calves seen all around us! We left them and continued to the north. We began to make our way home, when we sighted a shiny back of a whale a couple miles west of us! We were in luck! We caught up with a Humpback whale! At almost the same instance, we sighted a Fin whale east of us! We got views of the Humpback whale tail, and great views of the Fin whale as it traveled slowly to the north. We continued home and sighted likely the same Common dolphin pod racing to the north! During our afternoon trip, we continued back up to the north where all the action was! We found the same Fin whale circling the area! It had ~7-min dive times with 3 to 4 breaths at the surface! You could see there were some parasites hanging from the side of its body! It’s a common sight to see them on Fin whales! We continued back to the south and caught up with a huge pod of ~500 Long-beaked Common dolphins traveling in a train going from west to east! We enjoyed watching them leaping all around us! We had calm seas all day and incredible views!
Sunset set the whole sky ablaze tonight! We were also met with two pods of dolphin out on the pacific! We encountered a rambunctious and jumpy pod of short beaked common dolphins and a pod of offshore bottlenose that enjoyed bow riding for a good while! Just when we thought all hope for spotting a whale was gone, we found our bay Gray! A long line of black skimmers were skimming the surface of the water just as the whale spouted, and the birds all scattered to the skies in the gust of whale spout!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Alison
