Thursday, May 23, 2024
The Blue whales are here in FULL FORCE! We had two amazing trips with 23+ Blue whales sighted so far!
We began our morning trip with a couple of Inshore bottlenose dolphins crossing the Mission Bay jetties. We set out to the west and found ~50 Long-beaked Common dolphins feeding under diving birds! We continued to the west and after reaching the drop-off we sighted the massive spouts on the horizon! It was nearly impossible to count all the Blue whales! They were everywhere, both close and far. Our first encounter was a Fin whale on the left side of the boat and a Blue whale on the right! We got amazing looks as they cruised nearby. We estimated there was 15+ Blue whales out there! We got great looks at their flukes! As the Fin whale cruised by, we noticed it pooped at the surface! It was a reddish brown color indictating it was feeding on krill! It was so hard to leave the scene! On our way home, we sighted a single Fin whale only a couple miles from shore!
On our afternoon cruise, we had set out caught up with a couple more Inshore bottlenose dolphins. We found another pod of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins! There were lots of cow/calf pairs in the mix! We set out to the drop-off and sure enough the spouts were sighted from afar! We had about 8+ Blue whales this trip! They were everywhere out in the distance too! A pod of ~15 Offshore bottlenose dolphins were playing near our boat! They were jumping out of the water at the bow and in our wake!
Last trip of the day and we found all the whales! We headed out and saw a spout just off the horizon so we went to find it but it gave us the slip. After about 15 minutes of waiting – we decided it was better to head out west to the whale hot spot zone! Once we got there …. WE WERE SURROUNDED!
We hung out with a solid 5 BLUE whales before we lost all light and headed back. We were so captivated that we had to stay out late for and EXTRA good look. Our late arrival back to the docks meant we got to appreciate out coastline light up as dark took over the sky.
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Alison
