Minke whale, Fin whale, Humpback Oh My!! We had a triple baleen whale species day!
We had morning trip that was full of non-stop wildlife action! We cruised out to the west and in only ~200 ft of water, we spotted a small Minke whale! It was cruising in every direction all around the boat! It kept us on our toes and surprised us with every surfacing! We continued to the drop-off and sighted a pod of ~400 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They raced toward bait balls of anchovies feeding to their delight! We observed hundreds of birds diving feeding all around us! We were lucky enough to spot another larger Minke whale that surged through one of the bait balls, likely feeding! We continued out to the west and watched a Fin whale charging to the NW! We could see white water rushing over its head as it sped up the coastline! Fin whales are considered the “Greyhounds of the sea” as they have been clocked at burst speeds of 29mph! We also spotted a juvenile great white shark too!
We had an equally exciting afternoon trip spent with a BREACHING, tail-slapping, pec-slapping Humpback! First, we encountered about 100 Long-beaked Common dolphins cruising to the south. We got great looks as they were boat friendly and surfed next to us! We continued on and found an even larger pod with about 400 more Commons! They were observed feeding on anchovies! We even saw a bait ball that was about 50-ft in diameter! We were stoked to see them traveling fast to the north with great speed, porpoising out of the water! Captain Michael had a great hunch to head north to La Jolla. He sighted a massive splash in front of us a couple miles ahead! We watched through our binoculars as a very surface-active Humpback tail-lobbed several times! We even observed it breach once! After finally catching up with it, we were squealing with excitement as it breached 3x, tail-slapped numerous times, and pec-slapped twice. We also got a super close look as it mugged us and surfaced within 20-ft from the boat! The breaches were random and unpredictable as they usually are and I unfortunately was always on the wrong side of the boat, so no photo to share! Lol! One of the passengers graciously shared their content, so please check that out!
We have one more trip to go! Come out if you’re available, we leave the dock in about an hour!!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
