We had the Best morning with Blue whales and Common dolphins! We set out to the ocean and right off the bat, we sighted a small pod of Long-beaked Common dolphins. They were feeding under diving birds. We continued out and beyond the drop-off we spotted a HUGE pod of ~500 Short-beaked Common dolphins that surrounded our boat! We are still seeing lots of babies playing in the pod. We got out to almost 12-miles from shore and spotted a spout in the distance. We caught up with a Blue whale slowly cruising along. We got great looks as it came up for almost 10 breaths with short 10-min dive times. We observed this whale yesterday, and can tell because of the notch in dorsal fin! We have 2 more trips to go…stay tuned for more!
Aaandd Happy Birthday to the California sea lions today! More than 50% of sea lions are born on this day! It’s a survival tactic. We are stoked to see the pups hanging around!
We krilled it today! We saw two pods of long-beaked common dolphins hanging out around 6 miles offshore. One pod consisted of ~350 long-beaked common dolphins. The second pod had about ~150 long-beaked common dolphins. They were bow-riding and surfing in our wake. We also saw a Mola-mola and 2 BLUE WHALES!! They were going down for 10 minute dive intervals. We saw several flukes and the blue glow was so beautiful and vibrant with our sunny skies today. Our sunset trip was absolutely magical! We headed out west and once again around 6 miles offshore, we encountered the pair of blue whales! They were going down for 9 minute dive intervals most likely feeding on our abundance of krill here in San Diego. Then, we travelled down south along the drop-off and encountered a massive pod of ~200 short-beaked common dolphins! They were launching out of the water and making massive splashes. Please come join us for some summer fun on the ocean!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa
