It’s been a beautiful day to start out in the big blue! We left the dock and got straight out of the jetties, immediately spotting a MASSIVE bird pile. Every direction, birds were making huge splashes as they dove into the water! As we got closer, we started to see dorsal fins- we had nearly 300 long-beaked common dolphins all split up working on multiple HUGE bait balls! Elegant terns squawked in every direction, and pelicans showed off their fluffy white bellies as they dove.
There were so many calves in this pod, I’m sure mommas were showing their youngins how to hunt! 🥰 We continued further offshore to the W/NW, finding more small pockets of long-beaked common dolphins of about 150. The second group was much spunkier than the last, showing off for us with high breaches and leaps out of the water.
It was a fabulous morning trip, and we’ll update you soon about what we’re seeing on our afternoon & sunset 👀 🐬 Sea ya soon!
The dolphin madness flowed right into our afternoon trip!! As soon as we left the Mission bay jetties, we caught up with likely the same massive feeding frenzy only a mile from shore! Anchovies were on the menu! There were hundreds of birds diving and picking up anchovies all around us! This was our largest pod of the trip, with about 400 Long-beaked Commons sighted! We continued out and not too far from us we spotted another pod with ~300 Commons traveling to the east. They were probably headed toward all the action we had just hung out with. We spotted plenty of calves in the pods and enjoyed seeing the big breaches from the energetic individuals! We caught up with two more pods near the drop-off and the waves began to pick up out there. It looked like the Commons enjoyed surfing those waves!
Our last and final trip was so fun and beautiful! The seas calmed and we had NON-STOP feeding frenzies with Long-beaked Common dolphin and seabirds in attendance! We were excited to see them in all directions around the boat as we traveled down to the south! We took in the nice views of Point Loma, Downtown San Diego and Mexico while surrounded by Commons galore! We even hit the 1000 mark with at least 1k Common dolphins sighted throughout our trip! We observed some very energetic feeding and social behaviors! Check out the video in the comments for one dolphin zooming fast next to our boat! We even spotted a pelagic ray! I personally have never seen one our tours, so that was a special treat for us!
We hope to see you on a tour soon!
Naturalists, Olivia & Vanessa
