Happy International Coastal Cleanup Day!
We are ecstatic to be conducting a beach cleanup at Fiesta Island! We had an amazing morning trip with an everything hanging out on the drop-off! We initially spotted a big pod of Long-beaked Common dolphin that were feeding under diving birds. Then a Minke whale showed up and surprised us all! We watched it travel slowly to the south following the drop-off. We got some great looks as surfaced beside us! We waved goodbye to our Stinky Minke friend and then head back north to catch up with the Common dolphins! The conditions were so beautiful and glassy we could observed the Commons as they swam below! We spotted many cow/calf pairs all around us. There were over 200 individuals traveling to the south. We spotted one California sea lion too!
We have two more trips to go!
We saw two different species of toothed whales (Odontocetes) on our afternoon and sunset trip! On our afternoon trip, we quickly encountered a wonderful pod of ~150 long-beaked common dolphins. They were surfing in our wake and riding our bow. We saw them traveling at very impressive speeds! They are one of the fastest dolphins out there, they can travel up to ~35 miles per hour, almost three times faster than the Privateer! On our sunset trip, we scanned diligently and came across an awesome pod of ~30 offshore bottlenose dolphins. We love seeing offshore bottlenose dolphins because of their massive size and strong build! They can weigh up to ~2500lbs so much larger than common dolphins. The offshore bottlenose dolphins were going down for short feeding dives. Tomorrow is Sunday funday and we can’t wait to see what the Pacific ocean has in store for us!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa