We KRILLED it today! There’s nothing better than seeing a couple of big & beautiful blue whales swimming happily in our big & beautiful blue ocean! ❤ Sea conditions were pristine with warm and sunny skies all day! We found two gentle giants on both the morning trip & afternoon trip! We had to travel pretty far towards the 9-mile embankment to catch up with our blue whale friends but it was so rewarding once we finally got to the area! We could whaley tell the difference between the two blue whales by looking at their unique dorsal fins. One of the blue whales had a much smaller dorsal fin, looked almost like a little nub! The other blue whale with the more triangular shaped dorsal fin was doing interesting c-shaped turns and came up super close to us. We also found a spunky pod of ~100 long-beaked common dolphins on the afternoon trip. We have some more ocean fun coming up on the sunset trip so please stay tuned!
On our sunset trip, we headed straight out to the west. Sea conditions were very nice and the water began to shimmer as the sun started to set. We noticed a blow in the sun’s glare, and stumbled upon a humpback whale! It fluked and we all watched in excitement. We stayed around for a few surfacings, even breifly spotted a MOLA MOLA, and then continued on our journey towards the 9-mile bank to hopefully catch up with the lounging blue whales! We passed lots of sooty and black-vented shearwaters hanging out at the surface, and then Captain Bryan spotted the unmistakable spouts of TWO BLUE WHALES!!! We kept tabs on their dive time, which seemed to be between 6-8 minutes long. One individual seemed to change direction and for a moment was swimming alongside us! It was such a beautiful scene as the sun set and created an orange hue glimmering across the water. As we began to get our last looks at the blue whale we were closest to, the whale made a high arch dive and FLUKED! Absolutely INCREDIBLE!!! Everyone on board screamed with joy as we saw the whale’s ginormous flukes emerge from the water and back down into the ocean depths. We then began our journey back home, all very excited to end the day with such a whale-y great encounter.
Every day out here on the water is truly a gift, and we feel so lucky to share these moments with all of you! Hope to see you all on a trip soon… blue whale season is just getting started!
Naturalists,
Melissa & Olivia
