We had a Terrific Tuesday out on the Pacific Ocean!
On our morning trip, we set out to the northwest and found 3 or 4 pods totaling ~400 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They were scattered all around us with a lot of little babies in the mix. We enjoyed watching them race up to the boat and surf the bow and the wake. We found another pod of Commons but this time they were the Short-beaked Common dolphins! There was close to ~150 in the area. Many breached and porpoised around the boat. We even got to see vibrant pink bellies on the super energetic ones! We continued to the west when a spout appeared before our eyes! It was a tricky one to track at first, but then we realized it was in travel mode. It was up for 3 breaths, and down for 6-minutes, traveling fast at 6mph to the south.
On our afternoon trip, we cruised to the SW and found a huge pod of ~400 Long-beaked Common dolphins that were traveling to the SE. They spread out across about a 3/4 mile like they were doing a sweep for food. We caught up with them as they found a huge bait ball. You could see the purplish bait ball up at the surface. All the dolphins were corralling them as well as birds diving and taking one by one. Another bait ball popped up in front of us! It was like we were watching a Nat Geo production LIVE! We pushed out to the SW toward the 9-mile bank. 11-miles from shore at 1300-feet of water was the farthest we reached.
We have a triple trip day tomorrow! Hope to sea you then!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
