We had an action-packed day full of wildlife! FOUR species of Cetaceans were seen!
On the morning tour, we set out to the west and once on the drop-off, we hung out with a pod of ~5 Offshore bottlenose dolphins! They cruised beside us as they traveled south. We continued on toward deeper water and spotted a mama and baby pair of BLUE WHALES! They were spotted snorkeling at the surface. They were up at the surface for a long time so we got great looks. It was amazing to see the calf swimming right next to mom in her slipstream! They even synchronized their breaths and went down for their sounding dive at the same time. They stayed down for only 10-min and then popped further to the south. We heard later they continued across the Mexican border!
On the afternoon trip, we pushed it to the west and once on the drop-off we found a pod of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They were traveling alongside of us and we were able to see many cow/calf pairs. Those little football-sized calves popped up all around us! We observed the dolphins surround our boat and surf our wake! We waved good-bye to our new DOLPHRIENDS and kept going west. We were searching, scanning everywhere and then finally spotted a disapating spout far to the south! We spotted it again and we realized we found a PAIR of FIN whales! They were traveling at only 2mph hour to the north. We were so excited to see the second largest animal on earth! We haven’t seen them a little while!
We have one more trip to go! Sea ya on the next one!
We had a relaxing time on this afternoon’s overflow trip on the Ohana from start to FINish! Around 11 miles offshore, we encountered 2 massive FIN whales! We haven’t been seeing many fin whales over the past few weeks as blue whales have sort of taken over our coast so it was a very special and unexpected treat to see TWO FIN whales! We hung out with these fin whales for multiple breath cycles. They were going down for 5-7min dives, found in over ~2000 ft of water! Fin whales are known as the greyhounds of sea because of their incredible speed for their massive size! They are capable of traveling at speeds up to ~22 miles per hour! Which is incredible for a whale that weighs over 100 tonnes and about 70-90 ft in length! We never know what we will encounter out here on the Pacific ocean! We have one more sunset trip on the Privateer so please stay tuned!
Our sunset trip was the cherry on top to the most magical day on the water! We found ~200 long-beaked common dolphins. They were surfing in our wake and riding our bow! Then around 11 miles offshore we found the most beautiful pair of blue whales, a cow/calf pair! The mom lifted her tail flukes multiple times and her calf followed closely behind! We also saw the most beautiful sunset and majestic moon rise! Always such a fun time on the water!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa