We had an amazing morning trip with a Fin whale, a big pod of 200 Long-beaked Common dolphins and ~30 Offshore Bottlenose dolphins! We left Mission bay and cruised out toward the SW. Along the way we sighted a couple purple-striped jellies! We reached the drop-off and spotted some scattered splashes to the west of us. We caught up with the action and hung out with Offshore bottlenose dolphins! They were breaching, porpoising and being super playful! We left them behind and continued on. It was a little quiet on our way SW so we turned to the north. Then while scanning in the binos we spotted a spout! We caught up with a Fin whale and the Common dolphins! We think there may have been a Humpback sighted but we didn’t get to spend time with it. On our way in we had a quick sighting of a Mola mola! Overall, it was an awesome trip!
On our afternoon trip, we hit a grand slam for sightings, which included three species of baleen whales and a large pod of dolphins. We got out to the 9-mile bank toward the northwest of Mission Bay and came upon a hungry pod of foraging Long-beaked Common dolphins. A humpback whale surfaced from within the pod and like the dolphins and seabirds followed the forage fish of anchovies, which were darting back and forth in the hopes of not being consumed by big and little mouths of hungry cetaceans and the bills of seabirds. Then, a Fin Whale surfaced a bit forward of the baitball. It was a delight for all of us to witness such an amazing feeding frenzy, reminding us of a bountiful ocean. On our way back, a huge surprise, as a Blue Whale surfaced in an eddy zone less than two miles from the entrance to Mission Bay Channel. Very unusual, however our naturalists took photos and confirmed that the whale was indeed a Blue Whale. Our blue whale season is underway, now is the time to come and and give it a try to see the largest mammals on this wonderful blue planet.
Naturalists,
Vanessa & Greg
