A beautiful morning tour this AM with sightings of 300 long-beaked common dolphins and 30 offshore bottlenose dolphins! We found a fun feeding frenzy with hundreds of birds diving into the water, feeding alongside the commons! Plenty of the energetic dolphins raced right over to check us out. We got gorgeous looks as they patrolled up and down the boat, rolling open their sides to look up at us! Just 1/4 mile north of us, we spotted more splashes and some tiny spouts. The offshore bottlenose were very spread out, and headed south. We also spotted 3-5 coastal bottlenose leaving the jetties, and a cutie harbor seal on our way in.
We had a fin-tastic afternoon trip spending time with over 75 long-beaked common dolphins! Our PM trip started out to the west, eventually turning up to the north. We continuously saw lots and lots of birds feeding, but had not spotted any dolphins with them just yet! To our surprise, we headed back along the coastline towards MB, and found ourselves surrounded by a nursery pod of long-beaks. Even though these guys are called “common” dolphins, I always get a thrill watching them. They are so smart, intelligent, and continue to surprise me each time I see them! I always especially enjoy getting to see their sweet faces as they launch out of the water. This group kept staying to only one side of the boat, would switch to the other side, and then go on a little dive and pop up further away from us! They porpoised hard out to the NW, and we continued our journey back to shore.
We’ve got our sunset left this evening, with clear skies and beautiful visibility, I’m crossing my fingers for a gorgeous sunny sunset! Hope to see y’all on one of our trips here soon . Naturalists, Vanessa & Olivia
Sunset Trip: The M/V Privateer with Captain Brian Piersall, our galley bartender Sam, deckhand Kaelyn and naturalist Greg was ready for onboarding our intrepid guests and soon-to-be ocean passengers. We enjoyed seeing the antics of the California sea lions at the end of the floating bait dock. A couple of them were balanced on the big, yellow mooring ball, striking a pose. We saw a Snowy egret right next to the larger Great Egret. Cormorants, gulls, pelicans and a great blue heron were also spotted. We encountered some swell and wind chop and everyone became true mariners with a few ocean sprays at the Mission Bay Channel entrance and beyond. We made it to the Nine-Mile Bank and spotted two small pods of Long-beaked common dolphins. It helped having a flock of terns plunge diving in the distance. We investigated and found the dolphins. On our way back, a few passengers yelled that they saw a couple of spouts on the starboard side. We suddenly saw some impressive splashes, indicating tail throws, breaches and or pectoral fin slaps from a likely humpback whale. It stayed down a long time, passed across our bow and then disappeared. We had a fabulous atmospheric phenomenon known as the Green Flash, where the tip of the setting sun turned green due to refraction. It only lasts for a split second, hence the name green flash (not a flash in the sky), but it was quite a clear horizon and a stunning thing to see—not often seen—at sundown. We always are surprised by what we witness out on the ocean, so come join us soon for a whale and dolphin tour soon. -Naturalist Greg
