We had a Thrilling Thursday with hundreds of dolphins seen on both tours! This morning, we cruised out to the west and spotted a huge pod of ~200 Short-beaked Common dolphins following the contour of the drop-off! They surrounded our boat and we watched as they surfed at the bow and rode the wake! Baby Alert! There were so many tiny little calves in the big pod. We enjoyed watching them push their boundaries and join the fun! They leaped and breached next to the boat! We continued up the coast and found a couple more pods but this time they were Long-beaked Common dolphins. There were mini bait balls near the dolphins and under diving birds. We left them in La Jolla and enjoyed the nice cruise in.
For our afternoon trip, we went west toward deeper water. We found a larger pod of Short-beaked Common dolphins near the drop-off. This time there were about 300. At first they were in a nice tight group, but then spread out over a 1/4 mile as they traveled to the south. Guests squealed with excitement once they spotted the baby Commons. They were breaching and porpoising all around us. Commons dolphins are amazing! We continued to the south. The winds picked up this afternoon which made for a splashy but fun trip!
We have one more trip to go!
Our sunset trip consisted of spunky dolphins and a strawberry pink & orange sunset! We headed out west towards the drop-off, at our furthest point we were about ~9 miles away from Mission Bay. It was fairly quiet for the first half of the trip, seeing scattered birds of elegant terns and shearwaters. However, around the midway point as we were turning towards the shallow edge of the drop-off, we encountered a pod of ~75 long-beaked common dolphins. They were making splashes with their tail-slapping and chin-slapping! Soon after, we quickly encountered a bonus pod of ~50 long-beaked common dolphins! They were hanging out near a massive aggregation of elegant terns, western gulls and shearwaters. More salty fun coming up tomorrow. Sea you next time!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa
