We had an amazing day full of wildlife today! The seas were calm, with blue skies and whales and dolphins spotted everywhere we went!
On our morning tour, we set out to the SW and spotted a huge pod of ~150 Long-beaked Commons feeding under diving birds! They were racing around chasing small schooling fish! We continued up north and spotted pod after pod of long-beaked Common dolphins near shore. Our biggest pod of dolphins was in La Jolla and there were so many teeny-tiny calves seen all around. We spotted a big spout toward the coast and ended up hanging out with 3 Blue whales! We had the best backdrop with the cliffsides of Torrey Pines!
On the afternoon trip, we knew to go up north and spotted a small nursery pod of ~15 Long-beaked Common dolphins. We enjoyed the coastlines views and once in La Jolla, the wildlife activity exploded! We hung out with a pod of ~500 Long-beaked Common dolphins, a single Fin whale, a pod of ~300 Short-beaked Common dolphins and 3 Blue whales!! The Fin whale was a subadult that was about 40-ft in length! We got great looks as it even swam toward us! The Short-beaked Common dolphins were bringing the energy! They launched out of the water non-stop! They breached, porpoised, tail and chin-slapped! Cow/calf pairs were seen all around. The Blue whales were amazing! We got looks at all 3 of their tail flukes as they went down for a dive!
We rounded out the most glorious Sunday on the pacific with glassy seas and stunning light while on our Sunset trip. I cannot rave enough about the perfect ocean conditions today!! We heading back North to La Jolla Canyon where all action was earlier in the day. We caught up with the large wide-spread pod of offshore bottlenose dolphins, hard to not enjoy them elegantly grace the mercury-like seas! From the wheelhouse we saw a whale lift its fluke and go on a deep sounding dive and were pleasantly surprised by a juvenile humpback! While waiting for the humpback to surface a very large and adventurous pod of short-beaked common dolphins cruised on by and came to check out the boat. Truly, the star of the show today was the most spectacular sunset!! As we returned to Quivera Basin, the icing on the cake was catching the Space-X launch! The seas and sky’s had no shortage of entertainment today. Hope to have you out soon. We would love to show the best wildlife San Diego has to offer!
Naturalists,
Vanessa & Ruth
