Gorgeous seas, Common dolphins galore, and Blue whales!
On the morning tour, we set out to the SW and cruised over smooth glassy seas. We sighted an 2 Mola molas on the drop-off! We had great looks as the glassy seas made it easy to see their big lips and googly eyes! Not too far, was a small pod of ~7-10 Long-beaked Commons. They split up into two subgroups and circled around the boat. We made it to the 9-mile bank, and then headed north. We found another bigger pod of ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphins feeding under diving birds! They were seen all around us breaching and surfing our wake! We found lots of babies in the mix. We spotted 4 more smaller pods of Long-beaked Common dolphins on our way back in!
We switched things up a bit for our afternoon trip, and went west. We found a huge pod of ~700 Long-beaked Common dolphins hanging out on the drop-off! There pod spanned about a mile long! Seabirds were seen diving around them. We got great looks as they bow-rode the boat and surfed our wake! We continued a little further and caught up with a single Blue whale! It was traveling to the west with 10-min dive times. We spotted another Blue to the west of us so we caught up with it and stayed up at the surface for a really long time with at least 20 breaths witnessed, compared to 3-7 breaths on an average breath cycle. We began to leave for home, when a cow/calf pair surprised us! We even got the best looks at mom’s beautiful tail flukes! Then another surprise Fin whale popped up nearby! We found the whale zone!
And what a way to end the day with an AMAZING sunset trip! The best sunset colors we’ve had in at least 2 weeks! We started out the trip with a friendly pod of Long-beaked common dolphins- roughly 150 individuals. There were a few babies with their mamas in the mix- always a treat! Once we hit the drop off, we found the hot spot zone for the BLUE whales- at least 6 in the general area! The sun started to set, with the oranges and purple glow on the coast… we got an amazing fluke shot as the Blue whale dove to deep depths. To end the day, we had a STAMPEDE of common dolphins passing by and swimming into the sunset, truly breathtaking. A Saturday nights guests wont forget!
Naturalist,
Vanessa and Brooke
