It was an amazing day filled with a Northern Elephant seal, Commons and Humpies!
On our afternoon tour, we set out to the 9-mile bank and spotted an Elephant seal resting at the surface! We tried to get a close look, but when we were about 300yd away, it sunk out! It’s pretty rare to spot them and if we are lucky we may sight them once per year! The is sighting number 2 for us this year! We sighted ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphins traveling to the north in 1500-ft of water. They began to stampede around us! We had amazing looks a couple calves that were hanging out next to mom!
On our Sunset trip, we started our trip with 2 inshore bottlenose dolphins riding the bow on our way out of the MB channel. We continued out and spotted a school of 7 dinner-sized Mola molas! They were adorable and they all floated at the surface with a couple of gull’s keeping them company. We were almost to the drop-off when we spotted ~50 Long-beaked Common dolphins traveling southbound. We got great looks as they swarmed the boat, surfing in our wake and at the bow! We headed north along the drop-off and hung out with 2 southbound Humpback whales! They were pretty chill then all of a sudden while waiting for them to surface, they popped up just TEN feet from the starboard side of the vessel! It was exhilarating and the encounter gave us chills all over our body! We sat in neutral as they carried on toward the south.
We can’t wait to see what’s in store for the Thanksgiving weekend! Hope to sea you!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
