It’s a dolphin party out there! The seas are glassy and calm, the skies are blue again and it’s lookin GORGEOUS! We set off to the the north west and found a birdnado! There were THOUSANDS of seabirds feeding and circling in the air above, as we continued our search we found a pod of long beaked common dolphins in gorgeous conditions. It’s rare to have glass and blue skies, they provided some stunning visibility! After the dolphins we traced the drop off to the south until we found EVEN MORE dolphins!
Stay Tuned, Another trip is about to leave the dock!
Dolphriends galore!! On today’s afternoon trip, we headed out west and then north towards La Jolla. We encountered several scattered pods of long-beaked common dolphins throughout the trip! The largest pod we saw consisted of ~200 long-beaked common dolphins! They were creating massive splashes, displaying interesting feeding behavior and having a blast surfing in our wake! We also saw hundreds and hundreds of seabirds; mostly elegant terns, western gulls and black-vented shearwaters. We also saw several massive bait balls on the surface, indicating there’s lots of food/prey in the water. Always a great sign of potentially encountering larger predators such as whales, dolphins and sea lions. There’s more wildlife to come on today’s sunset trip!
We kept the dolphin party going for the sunset trip today! Heading straight west, chasing the sun we encountered an acrobatic pod of about ~200 common dolphins porpoising and bellyflopping in a fairly tight knit pod. We enjoyed a handful of absolutely beautiful baby dolphins in the mix too! Continuing our journey up the drop off, we came across bird party galore! Seems like the sea-birds have been gorging all afternoon if we were able to catch multiple feeding frenzy’s in one day! There was a moderate sized pod of long-beaked common dolphins that wanted in on the buffet line and were chasing fish through the tranquil seas. Perfect day for food friends and fun on the Pacific.
Naturalists, Alison, Melissa, & Ruth
