The big blues have moved a bit offshore but as one species moves out another moves in! We haven’t seen this many dolphins in a LONG time. We see dolphins often out here but in truely large numbers it is a bit more rare.
Seems like the krill has all been gobbled up by the big baleen but now that it’s gone we’re seeing way more small schooling baitfish and the predators that follow. On both trips today we saw pods of long and short beaked common dolphins by the hundreds! A MASSIVE pod of ~500 short beaked commons cruised up the coast near La Jolla putting on one heck of a show! They stampeded north and once we caught up they were like popcorn on a hot pan! Popping out of the water in every possible direction. It felt as if we had been accepted into the pod – as one giant steal dolphin.
The conditions are feeling more summery out here! The skies were blue and the air was warm by 8 am when we got to the docks and it’s stayed toasty all day so far! Conditions are GORGEOUS! It’s a beautiful time to get out on the water.
We had a beautiful sunset trip, with about 75 Long-beaked Common dolphins sighted just inside of the drop-off. They were scattered into 4 separate subgroups and kept going for dives, but finally one pod came over to check us out! We got fun looks as they surfed our wake and rode the bow! There was one tiny calf hanging out next to mom, in her slipstream. We also sighted a brown booby continuously diving for fish! We witnessed an awesome sunset! It glowed a beautiful peachy pink and yellow!
Naturalists, Alison & Vanessa
