Some strange Fin-omenon here in San Diego, but it’s about time! Today we witnesses some speeding fin whales racing south to Mexico! That in its self is not to strange – they are known as the grey hounds of the sea for a reason. What was strange was that we saw three fin whales blasting south at 13kts on our morning trip, they must have made it nearly to Mexico by the time we headed back out. 4 miles into our second trip of the day – we found ANOTHER trio of fin whales moving south along the same exact fathom curve. Coincidence? Doubtful. Do we have any real answers? Nah – it’s the ocean! We know more about the surface of mars.
We’ll be left playing the guessing game – We’re they migrating? Was there a call to all Fins letting them know there was food down south? Is the Krill finally filtering in? Maybe. Red-necked phaleropes have been around picking something off the surface for a few days now. Man, the mystery is intoxicating!
Either way we’re excited to see our oceans so full of life!
Our sunset trip was a bit lumpy but beautiful! We pointed our nose toward the sun and spotted plenty of terns diving and feeding on the oceans surface. We scouted for dolphins but surprisingly none were sighted. We continued out and a bunch of passengers spotted a tall wispy spout in front of us! We waited, crossed our fingers and hoped it came up near by, but unfortunately we never sighted it again. We traveled to the SW and spotted some splashes out in ~1700 feet of water about a mile or two from the 9-mile bank. We found a very small pod of ~20 Short-beaked Common dolphins zipping around. We continued on and spotted more sporadically around our boat. Then all of a sudden we spotted a whale back! It was a juvenile Humpback that surfaced a few times without a spout! It didn’t move anywhere and just stayed in that one spot the entire time. We waited for it to come up again, but then a huge pod of ~100 Short-beaked Common dolphins raced straight for our boat! We got great looks as they cruised by us! They appeared to be on a mission headed out to the SW. We rode the glassy waves in and enjoyed the smooth seas and the gorgeous sunset!
Naturalists,
Alison & Vanessa
