We have got STUNNING conditions out on the water so far today! Water visibility is incredible (see the dolphin shots below), with a light wind and swells less than 2ft. In some spots we’ve got some really glassy conditions. This AM we left the jetties and went straight out to a pod of 70 offshore bottlenose dolphins, who were all chasing some bait. We made a turn and continued further out to the W, eventually headed straight to the N. We found a very large pod of about 500 long-beaked common dolphins, with some of the cutest little footballs (baby dolphins) I’ve ever seen! We even observed some mating behavior, with a male dolphin swimming belly-to-belly with a female dolphin. Pretty cool!
We continued N and rounded out the trip with 300 short-beaked common dolphins who put on quite the show for us! As we picked up speed to head home, so did they, and we saw a dolphin stampede! It felt like being in the middle of a dolphin popcorn bucket with them launching out of the water in every direction.
We’ll update you guys soon about what we see this afternoon and evening. With our new boat, Inspiration, up and running now alongside the Privateer, please come out to see us and the wildlife waiting for you in the big blue!
The beautiful sea conditions and amazing visibility continued into our afternoon trip! We had a triple toothed whale trip with sightings of Long-beaked Common dolphins, Offshore bottlenose dolphin, and Short-beaked Common dolphins! We found the Long-beaks at the drop-off and only spotted them by the massive feeding frenzy of birds diving with them! We got great looks as they moved from bait ball to bait ball to the SW. It felt like we were in a nature documentary with all the excitement, all we needed was David Attenborough to start narrating! We continued on to the west and spotted a small pod of ~20 Offshore bottlenose dolphin being very mellow traveling slowly to the south as well. We spotted another larger pod of ~75 Offshore bottlenose that were seen breaching and porpoising! A handful seemed to be checking us out as they lifted their heads above the water to do some people watching! Our last encounter was a super energetic pod of ~100 Short-beaked Common dolphins that were seen launching out of the water like little rockets! We caught up with them and noticed we had come across a nursery pod! We even got looks at some acrobatic dolphins with pink bellies!
We were having a ball on our sunset trip! We cruised out to the SW and on the drop-off we spotted a bunch of birds diving in the water! We enjoyed hanging out with a huge feeding frenzy! The ~300 Long-beaked Common dolphins were headed mostly out to the west and would stop for a snack every so often. We could see the fish jump out of the water! Terns were darting all around diving into the water. The gulls were doing their best to snatch it from them! We waved goodbye and continued to the 9-mile bank and spotted some splashes out in the distance! Then dorsal fins popped up in front of us. Turned out to be ~20 Offshore bottlenose dolphin including the tiniest calf! It would pop out of the water doing its best to mimic mom! The whole boat was squealing with excitement!
Hope to catch up with you soon!
Naturalists, Olivia & Vanessa
