Our guests got lucky today with a diving blue whale UNDER OUR BOAT!
We began our morning tour with a fun and active group of Long-beaked Common Dolphins feeding just offshore Mission Bay. In the mix were some hungry sea lions trying to hop in on the frenzy. As we continued to deeper water, we spotted a rather larger pod of Bottlenose Dolphins… and with them, one large BLUE WHALE. We spent time admiring this interspecies interaction, watching the whale and dolphins breathe together before they dove back down to the krill food source.
On our afternoon tour, we headed back to that same zone in hope of some more good luck! Our guests were able to catch a glimpse of mother and calf Long-beaked Common Dolphins before the big star of the show appeared. After some patience from a circling Blue whale, Captain Bryan turned off the engines and we had an approach of a lifetime! The whale turned to our port side, released an enormous exhale and dove directly under our boat!
We had to run 10 miles off shore to get out to the zone today but we were rewarded with 4 blue whales in gorgeous sunset lighting!
There’s no way to accurately describe the way the towering spouts of blue whales erupt from the sea and illuminate like fire works before drifting gently back down to sea! We headed back and a pair of blues decided that WE needed one more closer look before heading to shore. We got quite the wave goodbye with a breathtaking sunset backdrop.
See you out here tomorrow!
Naturalists,
Vanessa, Brooke & Alison
