We were rocking’ and rollin’ on the open sea today! But we had great visibility all day! We spotted 2 surfing inshore bottlenose dolphins on our way out of the morning trip. We continued to the drop-off and found an awesome pod of ~300 Long-beaked Common dolphins. There were hundreds of birds diving around them. The dolphins were fun to watch play around our boat! We found another pod of ~50 Long-beaked Commons in about 2000-ft of water to the west! We spotted 2 Mola molas during our journey.
On the afternoon trip, we pushed out and found another pod of ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They were riding the bow and surfing our wake! They breached, tail-slapped, and porpoised all around us. They were traveling slowly to the northwest. There were some teeny-tiny calves in the mix! We began to turn around and spotted a dorsal fin moving through the water. It turned out to be a shark! We believe it was a 4-ft Great white shark! We are waiting for another confirmation from some friends, so if we hear back, we will update here. It was pretty cool to see it so chill, just hanging out next to our boat. It turned towards us a couple of times and then went behind our boat. A single Mola mola was sighted nearby as well as a kelp paddy.
Dolphin party kept going on the sunset trip today! We enjoyed some sunny skies and a light breeze as we cruised out to the drop off. At the continental shelf we caught up to at least ~100 long beaked common dolphins slicing through the swell. The pod was pretty spread out and treated us to hearing their whistles and clicks while they rode along the bow. We left them and headed further north and we were lucky to strike upon another pod of again ~100 long-beaked common dolphins while the sun set. Heading south back to Mission bay appearing in the moonlight, we found yet another pod of about ~50 long-beaked common dolphins! Just gorgeous to see.
Can’t wait to see what Thursday has in store, we have 3 trips and would love to have you join us!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
