It’s been a beautiful day out on the water so far! We left the jetties this AM and headed straight out to the west. Bird activity seemed to slowly ramp up as we made our way out to the continental shelf. As we reached the dropoff, we were surprised by some offshore bottlenose dolphins! This speedy group of about 10 sped off to the north, leaping out of the water. We continued to make our way offshore a bit to the northwest, and noticed a massive group of splashes in the distance. We found some long-beaked common dolphins, a group of about 200! There were some adorable cow calf pairs we noticed as they surrounded the boat and rode our bow. As we picked up our speed, the ENTIRE group stampeded and split onto our port and starboard sides! We all gasped in amazement at these beautiful dolphins.
The day continued with incredible dolphin action! We set out to the west and searched the horizon until we saw what looked like gnats in the air miles out above the horizon line – that’s what a bird pile looks life from far enough away! Once we got out there we found an astounding pod of long beaked common dolphins – there were hundreds – maybe even a thousand dolphins spread in a long line along the horizon, almost as if they were doing an organized sweep of the area to corral all the bait int one area.
Sunset was quiet out there – but we did have the first visible sunset in maybe weeks! The forecast is clearing and we’re hoping for more blue sky days next week! The whales couldn’t care less about the weather – no matter what it looks like up here – it’s a whole different world down there!
Naturalist, Olivia & Alison
