Why did the dolphin cross the Pacific Ocean? – To get to the other tide! We had an epic dolphriend party this morning! We saw scattered pods of long-beaked common dolphins found throughout the trip. We saw at least 5-6 separate pods, each pod consisted of ~100 long-beaked common dolphins! We can encounter pods of long-beaked common dolphins throughout the year. Their typical range is between Southern California to the north and all the way south towards Chile and Argentina. We also encountered HUNDREDS of seabirds; a mixture of elegant terns, California brown pelicans, black-vented shearwaters and some western gulls. We have another trip coming up so please stay tuned!
On the PM trip, our Blue whale luck turned around!!! After 3 days of no sightings along the coast, we heard word of a large baleen whale south-west of the Jetty. We booked it out to deeper water, slowed down, and waited for something amazing to happen. There she blows! A blue whale popped up a couple hundred yards from our starboard side, making all the guests on board gasp in awe! We got glimpses of the explosive blowholes, its gradient coloring and the small dorsal fin as it arched their back for a deep dive. What a sight! We had two long breath cycles with his beautiful gentle giant before heading back to Mission Bay. Us crew were just as happy as our guests to find this Blue after days of searching, great job team!
On our last trip of the day, we headed back out west to the hot spot zone in search of that Blue whale again… and to our surprise, we had 3 Blue whales spouting in the same general area from earlier! As we made our way closer, a friendly pod of ~30 Offshore Bottlenose dolphins came to say hello! These gorgeous large dolphins rode our bow as the blue whales popped up in the distance- quite the sight! We waited patiently and with some luck, had two amazing breathe cycle views of an enormous Blue whale. With the sun setting, we headed back to Mission Bay with smiles on our faces! We are happy to see the Blues yet again!
Naturalist,
Melissa and Brooke
