Here are our whale counts for the day! 4 Northbound Gray whales on the morning trip, 1 single and a pod of 3 Northbound Gray whales on the afternoon trip! Our Sunset trip had a mystery whale and about ~400 common dolphins. We sighted Long-beaked Common dolphins all day!
On our morning trip, at the mission bay jetties we spotted 5-7 Coastal bottlenose dolphins surfing the big waves! They came over for a quick ride on the bow and in our wake! We spotted a scattered pod of ~75 Long-beaked Comon dolphins feeding under diving birds! We spotted another couple of pods out toward the west, consisting of ~100 more Commons! They loved to catch up with us and hitch a ride in our wake! We went the distance today, reaching the 9-mile bank! Headed north was a Quad Pod of Gray whales! We loved to see them synchronize their breaths! Such a beautiful sight! We were lucky to see their flukes lifted on their sounding dives! Our last sighting on our way home was an amazing pod of ~800 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They were full of energy as they raced toward the south!
On our afternoon trip, we spotted another fun pod of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins circling under California brown Pelicans, terns and gulls! We pushed out to the west and got to about 9-miles from shore and spotted some spouts in front of us to the south. First, we hung out with a single Gray whale that popped up right next to us. Then our drone pilot, Sean spotted a trio of Grays that showed behind us to the north. We pivoted the boat around and spent our time enjoying spout after spout! There was a smaller whale and two larger whales! They all had tons of barnacles and lice visible on their heads! They traveled slowly at 4mph to the North. We waved goodbye to our new whale friends and headed to the coast!
The last trip of the day was full of dolphins! We sighted a mystery whale while we were heading west and as we sat and waited for the whale to appear – a pod of ~20 bottlenose surfaced around our boat. After about a 17 min wait – we decided to move on. Off in the distance we sighted a MASSIVE feeding frenzie. Once caught up, we were hanging with about ~400 common dolphins!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Alison
