Wednesday, August 7, 2024
We hung out with some fun and energetic Common dolphins today! On our morning trip, we set out to the north, hugged the coast and caught up with a pod of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphin! They were cruising to the north along with us. We left them behind and spotted more out to the west and this was a bigger pod of about 200 Long-beaked Common dolphin! They were super playful and popped up all around our boat. We enjoyed seeing the babies! We searched for more wildlife in the La Jolla Canyon and to the west. The wind from the south picked up and made for a fun splashy ride.
On the afternoon trip, we cruised out to the SW and around 3-miles from shore we hung out with about 100 Long-beaked Common dolphin! They were very playful at the bow and the wake. We continued our journey to the west and caught up with a very energetic and acrobatic pod of ~300 Short-beaked Common dolphin! They breached, porpoised, tail-slapped, and even back flipped all around us! There was a teaching moment witnessed as both mom and calf leaped out of the water in unison several times! There was also a sighting of a leaping Short-beaked Common dolphin that had a very deep cookie cutter shark bite on it head above its right eye!
We have a sunset trip left for the day, so we will back to update you soon.
What did the sun say to the ocean? I‘ll be back tomorrow, just you wait and sea” We had an epic sunset trip this evening with spunky cetaceans and fluffy pink clouds as the cherry on top! At the start of our trip, we quickly encountered ~75 long-beaked common dolphins! They were hanging out under flocks of elegant terns and western gulls. Then we traveled out west towards the drop-off and encountered a pod of ~250 short-beaked common dolphins! They were leaping out of the water and giving us an acrobatic performance! The sunset on the way back towards Mission Bay was absolutely delightful! We can’t wait to sea more salty cetaceans tomorrow!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa
