Can’t handle this heat wave? Come and cool down with us on the Pacific Ocean! 🙂 On today’s morning trip, we traveled basically straight out west and encountered ~100 short-beaked common dolphins around the drop-off! They were showing off and leaping high into the sky! Then, around ~12.7 miles offshore we encountered a stellar pod of ~40 RISSO’S dolphins! Typically, we see these guys only about once or twice a month but we’ve been seeing them more frequently this September! Their primary source of prey is squid, so perhaps there is an influx in squid population driving them to swim closer to the coast within our range.
For the afternoon trip, it was extremely quiet… we didn’t even see any birds at all. Ocean conditions were perfect and the sun came out so it was a lovely boat ride on the Pacific Ocean. However, as we were making our way back to Mission Bay, we finally encountered a lively pod of ~150 long-beaked common dolphins! They were bow-riding and surfing in our wake. The energy from our long-beaked common dolphriends really put a smile on everyone’s face! We were SO happy to spot some cetaceans! We also saw a Mola-mola and a flying fish during the PM trip! We have a sunset trip coming up so please stay tuned.
This heat wave brought some incredible cloud formations with it! When you’re out to sea – you get to see so much more of the crazy cumulus  clouds that build and build these enormous fluffy masses in the sky. Check the pictures for the epic cloud watching today. We also encountered a good sized pod of short beaked commons just as the sun was approaching the horizon. There’s very little that we see out here that’s more magical than watching dolphins slicing through the glistening golden ocean at sunset.
Naturalist,
Melissa & Alison