Whale, whale, whale, I guess May Gray has started! We had a little bit of a foggy & gray morning today. However, ocean conditions were awesome throughout the trip! It was pretty quiet out there but eventually we found ~100 short-beaked common dolphins located around ~9 miles offshore! They were leaping around and stampeding! It was so fun hang out with some dolphriends! We also found plenty of California brown pelicans, a western tanager, and one yellow bellied warbler.
Our day got a bit more exciting as it went on, with the fog bank clearing and better visibility we were able to sight so much wildlife! We saw a fast moving fin break the surface and initially though – SHARK but it was a MASSSIVE Mola Mola lunge feeding on Valella, we cruised by anf cheered him on at each lunge! This is what watching, not fish watching so we cruised out off the coastline and sighted about 150 short beaked common dolphins. While we hung out with them , we sighted a very triangular dorsal fin! We found two minke whales! And man oh man were they stinky! We were down wind of a big breath and the stink was potent enough to make even the most seasoned whale watchers cringe 😂. After zooming around with these two wild minkes – we went back for more dolphin action! The short beaks broke out in stampede! We were able to keep up but just barely as they barreled to the south!
Sunset got a bit wet, but from sky water – a dense misty fog set in as we began our journey – imagine our delight to find a strong pod of long beaked common dolphins emerging from the mist! Long beaks were so rowdy! They were tail slapping, blowing raspberry’s and whistling all over! There’s nothing like hearing the shrieks of joy from delighted passengers as dolphins put on a show.
Naturalist,
Melissa & Alison
