We hit MEGAPOD (1000+) status on our trips today! There’s a very social pod of Long-beaked Common dolphin roaming the San Diego waters!
We started the day by cruising out to the west and noticed some bird activity to the north just outside of Pacific beach. By the time we got to it, the activity fizzled out so we kept moving to the west. We spotted some splashed out in front of us just beyond the drop-off. It was long line of Common dolphins racing fast to the south! We caught up with them and they immediately zoomed up to our boat and played in our wake and rode the bow! We followed the amazing pod to the south for awhile and then hooked it out to the west. We were in about 2700 feet of water about 9-miles from Mission bay and turned back in. We spotted a some more dolphins on our way in.
We had a fun afternoon trip spent with another Megapod of Long-beaked Common dolphins! They spotted way down to the south along the drop-off. Once we caught up with them, we traveled about 3-miles and were surrounded by dolphins the entire time! We were excited to see many cow/calf pairs! They were also so fun to watch as they zipped over to us to cruise in our wake. We also observed some fun acrobatic maneuvers like breaching, porpoising and tail-slapping! These Megapods are fun to see a lot of socializing going on! We also encountered on Mola mola along the way!
We have another trip to go so we will update you soon!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
The biodiversity in San Diego never ceases to amaze us! We had ONE HECK of a sunset cruise tonight, one WILD WHALE and pretty much everything you could want on one trip! The cruise started off a bit slow and grey but who can complain about gorgeous glassy seas? We sighted a massive feeding frenzy with dolphins GOING WILD hunting anchovies as the anchovies launched into the air in silver glittering arches. After some good time hanging with the dolphins – we set off to find some new life. Captain Austin saw what looked like a yellowtail jump out of the water but nope… as we got closer we found A BABY SHARK ( you know the drill) do do do do do do…. It was hard to figure out what type but eventually we settled on a baby mako shark! We got a call from out friends at Gone Whale Watching that they found a minke whale, usually we don’t get to excited about these because they’re small and elusive but – NOT THIS ONE this whale logged at the surface, did loops around out boat rolling around and flashing us its bright white belly! ( video will be uploaded in comments) Running low on daylight and time to return to the dock we set towards the coast. Dear Pacific wasn’t done with us! just a couple miles before returning to shore, we had some friendly offshore bottlenose come put on one heck of a show, leaping at the bow wake and splashing everyone near by!
Truely, wild magic out there 🐬
Naturalist, Alison
