We were rockin’ and rollin’ out on the Pacific Ocean! We set out of the Mission bay jetties and hooked it to the north! We enjoyed the beautiful weather and great visibility! Along the way, we spotted a huge raft of California sea lions! We observed them from afar and estimated about 20 of them all hanging out together! We cruised the Gray whale highway and after reaching La Jolla, we pushed out to the west to the drop-off. We followed that to the south and spotted a couple large splashes to the west of us! It was an amazing pod of ~150 Short-beaked Common dolphins! We have not seen them in about a month, so it was a nice treat! They were breaching and porpoising all around us! We noticed one show off that almost seemed to be doing the moonwalk! It was fun sight to see! There were plenty of cow/calf pairs sighted traveling toward our bow and wake! We continued in and had a nice smooth ride home!
We have two more trips to go! We will be back with updates!
Who’s the cutest crusty cetacean of the sea? – A gray whale! We found two gray whales on our afternoon trip! They were found about ~2.5 miles offshore. We hung out with the first gray whale for a few breath cycles. It was going down for ~3 min dives! It was acting a bit elusive only coming up for one breath at a time. So, we went ahead and caught up with our second gray whale of day! This gray whale popped up on our port bow super close to the boat. It was acting curious and checking us out! Then, as we went out a bit further out west, we spotted another spout! It resembled a heart-shaped spout so we think it was another gray whale. However, it gave us the slip and never spotted again!
Our afternoon trip started off with a bang! As soon as we left the jetties we found a masssive heart-shaped spout from a gray whale! It was going southbound towards the San Ignacio lagoon- their winter breeding grounds! We hung out with this gray whale for a few breath cycles and even saw a shy tail lift! Then, we headed out west and sighted another spout around ~7miles offshore in about ~1060 feet of water! Once again, the whale was acting a little elusive and never spotted again. The spout was very tall and columnar so we think it might have been from a Fin whale because of our location & distance from shore and the size & shape of the spout! Elusive whales seemed to be the theme of the day! Nonetheless, we were so stoked to have spotted these mighty marine mammals. Please come join us for more ocean fun tomorrow!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa
