Our day was filled with heart-shaped spouts and happy hearts! We were up bright and early today to find our cetacean friends! Our morning trip started off with a bang! We saw a small but playful pod of ~5 inshore bottlenose dolphins as we made our way out to sea. Then, we quickly saw a massive bird pile located down south. The bird pile led us to an amazing pod of ~100 long-beaked common dolphins! We also saw a great feeding frenzy of ~5 California sea lions, ~100 long-beaked common dolphins and various types of seabirds. We continued on south and saw two spouts located about~4 miles offshore in about ~300 feet of water. We found a pair of friendly Gray whales! They were traveling south towards Mexico, swimming side by side and sometimes playing follow-the-leader. They were going down for ~6 minute dives. During the last breath cycle we noticed a THIRD gray whale spout! We said goodbye to our migratory friends and wished them whale as they continued on their southbound travels.

We found another gray whale friend this afternoon located about ~3.5 miles offshore, north towards La Jolla in ~277 feet of water. We hung out with this gray whale for a good amount of time, getting great looks from all areas off of the boat. It was going down for ~5 minute dives, heading south east. Then, we caught up with an incredible pod of ~200 long-beaked common dolphins, TONS of shearwaters and some western gulls. We also saw massive bait ball of northern anchovies. We have another trip coming up evening so please stay tuned.

We had an EPIC sunset trip! We zoomed straight out to the SW and hung out with a single southbound Gray whale! It popped up on both sides of the boat and seemed to be cruising at about 5mph. It had a distinctive 10-ft spout that glowed in the low angle of the sun! It came up for 3-5 breaths and down for about 5min dives times. We were lucky enough to see its tail flukes on every sounding dive. On our last few breath cycles with the Gray whale a small pod of ~30 Long-beaked Common dolphin showed up! They went south and we went north and caught up with the rest of the pod. We traveled about 4-miles and we were hanging out with Common dolphins the ENTIRE time! We estimate there to be ~800 or more! The sunset was the cherry on top!

Naturalists, Melissa & Vanessa