Acrobatic Bottlenose dolphins and Blue whales delighted our guests today!
We started our day with a small pod of ~10 Common dolphins that popped up on both sides of our boat once we got to the drop-off. They disappeared on us, so we continued to the south and found a single Blue whale! We got great looks as it circled the area! It was feeding along the ledge. It had 10 to 13-min dive times. We began to leave the scene when a second Blue whale surfaced to the south of us!
On our afternoon trip, we set out to the west and sighted some big splashes along the drop-off! There were 3 small pods of Offshore Bottlenose dolphins! At the same time, two Blue whales surfaced to the west of us. We waited for them to surface and they popped up nearby and began to circle around each other! We got the best looks at the flukes of one of the whales when it went down for its sounding dive! We had 3 individual Blue whales feeding in the area, and we could tell because the very different looking dorsal fins! Take a look at the pics! We continued to the west and found more Offshore Bottlenose dolphins with babies and showing off their acrobatic abilities!
We still have spots left on our tours tonight and tomorrow! Come on out now, the wildlife is very exciting!
How does a blue whale call its friends? – On its shell phone!
We called our blue whale friends and they answered! On our sunset cruise, we first encountered a pod of ~200 long-beaked common dolphins within 3 miles offshore! It was a fairly scattered pod. However, they were displaying very interesting feeding behavior! They were swimming belly-side up, trying to trap their prey between their tummys and the surface of the water. Then, we peeled off and travelled further offshore towards the drop-off. Just on the edge of the drop-off we spotted a spout from our summer love- BLUE WHALE! We saw multiple spouts today, seeing at least 3 blue whales in the general area. We got really great looks at one of the blue whales, seeing it raise its flukes from a distance a couple of times. We also saw it come up the our starboard bow! It’s always a great time on the Pacific Ocean with our whale and dolphriends. See you next time!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa
