Looks like the recent rainfall event stirred up some nutrient mixing in the water column bringing out lots of wildlife! On our morning trip, we encountered a massive pod of long-beaked common dolphins and saw lots of bird activity; a mixture of terns, gulls and pelicans. The birds led us to a humpback whale found right in the middle of a feeding frenzy! We also found scattered pods of long-beaked common dolphins. We saw about ~700 LB common dolphins in total spread out throughout the trip.
For our afternoon trip, we quickly encountered a gray whale. It was “snorkeling”, and being a little elusive by staying just below the surface of the water. Then, we encountered a large pod of ~350 long-beaked common dolphins and a smaller pod of ~15 short-beaked common dolphins. It is always a fun time on the water with us!
We had an amazing sunset tour with dolphins spotted everywhere we went! We left the Mission Bay jetties and sighted ~5 Inshore bottlenose dolphins crossing the channel. They caught up with us a rode the bow and surfed our wake! We pointed our nose to the west and sighted some splashes! It turned out to the be a huge pod of ~300 Long-beaked Common dolphins that stretched out to the west! We found another big pod of about 300 along the drop-off! From there, we sighted scattered Common dolphins all around us! We noticed many terns, gulls and California brown pelicans diving near the birds with mini feeding frenzies all around us. We were crossing our fingers for a spout to appear, but the dolphins stole our hearts this evening! There were cow/calf pairs sighted all around us! We observed some big breaches and tail slaps as they were socializing with each other! The sunset was golden and finished off with a green flash!
Naturalists,
Melissa & Vanessa
