GRAY WHALES IN JUNE?! Yup you read that right!
On our morning trip, we were smooth sailing! We had amazing glassy and calm sea conditions! We cruised out to the SW and spotted thousands of birds! Many rafts of shearwaters all around! We spotted terns, gulls, shearwaters and California Brown Pelicans on our journey. We also sighted a huge purple striped jellyfish! It had very long tentacles/arms! We spotted a feeding frenzy toward the west and hung out with a fun pod of ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They were so fun to watch! They leaped out of the water breaching and porpoising! Those dolphins led us to a Minke whale! Passengers found out why their nickname is the Stinky Minke! Lol We were downwind and smelled its intense bad breath! It was actually pretty curious with us as we watched it cross our bow and even go under our boat a couple times! There were lots of baitballs all around too! While waiting for the Minke to surface, a school of fish began bubbling up to the surface surrounding our boat! We could see their glittery scales flashing!
On our afternoon trip, we set out to the SW once again! This time we spotted a fun pod of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins cruising south. We enjoyed hanging out wiht them as they surfaced all around our boat! We got great looks as they were pretty interactive with our wake! Both Captain Austin and I spotted a spout in front of the boat and were excited to see that there was a whale nearby! After getting one look at it, we quickly realized it was a PAIR of northbound GRAY whales! It is not a common sight to see them outside of our normal Gray whale season (Dec-April). The two stragglers seemed to be a couple of smaller whales that were traveling close to each other within 5-ft of each other! We even got to witness them synchronize their breaths once! We got great looks at a double spout! One individual had a ton of golden barnacles on its head and it liked to go for a dive, flicking its tail up quickly. We waved goodbye and wished them good luck on their journey back up to the Arctic. We spotted another huge pod of ~600 Long-beaked Common dolphins that were so playful! Another two more pods of ~100 Commons were sighted on our way in as well!
On our sunset trip, we headed out to the S/SW and ran into a pod of about 65 long-beaked common dolphins. We had lots of fun with this group, spotted the tiniest little calf with its mom, and continued our way offshore. As we all enjoyed the warmth of the setting sun, we spotted a massive group of splashes off of our starboard side, spanning from our 12:30 to 4 o’clock position! This pod of dolphins was MASSIVE! We made a slow turn and headed their direction, and the group seemed to get bigger and bigger. We had a MEGAPOD on our hands!!!! Everyone stared in awe as we very quickly found ourselves surrounded by common dolphins in every direction. Hearing their exhalations as they come up, and their many vocalizations never gets old. We made one last loop through all of the dolphins and turned to head back towards the bay. As we cruised home, enjoying the sunset, we passed a very quickly moving pod of common dolphins in the distance.
It was a beautiful day out on the water, sea ya on the next one!
Naturalists,
Vanessa & Olivia
