It was a BRYDE-ful day out there!
There’s a whole lotta bait balls out there! We had two great trips with dolphins sighted everywhere we went! On our morning trip, we set out to the west and spotted a MEGAPOD of Short-beaked Common dolphins! They were traveling to the north in a long line! We got to the end of it and found more dolphins! There was another huge spread out pod of ~300 Long-beaked Common dolphins headed to the SW! We enjoyed watching all the tiny calves, big breaches and splashing! We were on our way back in and spotted a whale pop up right next to us! A couple of passengers even saw its head as it lunged to the surface! We waited about 10-min but it never surfaced around us and gave us the slip. It was a nice and smooth ride home! 🙂
On our afternoon trip, we set out to the west and were pleasantly surprised to see a Minke whale! We had just crossed the drop-off and started seeing some splashes out in the distance. It popped up all around the boat and was seen traveling toward big schools of fish. We continued out and hung out with ~200 Short-beaked Common dolphins that were headed west. We were thrilled to see a nursery pod among them! We were about to head out when a Bryde’s (pronounced Brood-us, hence the pun on the first line) whale popped up nearby! It surfaced for 2-3 breaths and had 5-min dive times. It was fun to see its fluke prints appear before the whale surfaced! These are seasonal visitors that come from warmer waters down south, and now is the best time to catch up with them. On our way home, we spotted a pod of ~40 Long-beaked Common dolphins!
Sea ya on the next one!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
