BLUE Monday! Like – the most AMAZING blue whale Monday ever! Bad day NOT to be on the ocean. This year has been slow for blues but this boat full of people was treated an extra rare sighting! We breezed by a feeding pod of long beaked common dolphins, they surfed the wake for a while and went right back to feeding on anchovies. We were on a mission to get out west, another boat gave us intel where to head to see find the largest animal on earth! We got to the spot and were lucky to have a good amount of time to hang out with this VERY thick healthy blue whale! It was exhibiting feeding behaviors – surfacing, circling, 11 min dive times and milling in the same area.
This blue was a full 90 FT and not shy at all, it surfaced close by two times and turned to aim right at us a couple times. We got to turn the engines off and experience maybe the most incredible sound on earth. Blue whales have a 1,400 gallon lung capacity and when they forcefully exhale – the sound is so percussive that the whole atmosphere vibrates. The entire boat goes dead silent, anticipation so taught in the air your could cut it with scissors. And a giant WHOOSH erupting from the blue, followed by a chorus of “AWWEES” from the passengers.
We’ve got one more trip tonight, get ya self’s out here! —Naturalist, Alison
Our evening sunset trip did not disappoint. Captain John went way offshore to the 9-Mile Bank, which is over the Coronado Escarpment, a deep water area where the most krill should be. Sure enough, after waiting over 10-minutes, we saw the tall, column-shaped spout of the largest mammal that has ever lived on our Blue Planet, the Blue Whale. This beauty had 8 exhalations, most of them heard with our engines off, and then we saw the long, arching back, the tiny dorsal fin and a peek-a-boo view of the tail flukes on a low arching dive or sound. We waited more than 16-minutes and some of our keen-eyed observer passengers spotted the whale in the distance. We may have had a Minke whale in the area, along with the heaviest of all boney fishes, the Mola mola or ocean sunfish breach at the surface. On our way back, one of our passengers yelled “dolphins” with only 2-miles to go…Captain John turned our boat around and we got great views. What a fabulous way to end our trip. Thanks to all of you for joining the few, the proud, the 1 per cent of whale watchers who have ever seen this critically endangered marine mammal, the Blue Whale. So lucky! -Naturalist Greg
