Another gorgeous day on the pacific with TONs of dolphins, at first a spread out area of feeding Long- beaked common dolphins then as we continued south west we found an active pod of Short – beaked common dolphins.
We always love seeing these boisterous animals – they come over to play in the boats wake, jumping and splashing around. They always look like they’re having a blast!
We had another beautiful afternoon trip with Long-beaked Common dolphin and two Mola molas! We left the Mission bay jetties and cruised out to the west and only 3-miles from shore we found a fun pod of ~300 Long-beaked Common dolphins. They were cruising along toward the north. We got great looks as they breached and porpoised beside us. There were lots of babies in the pod, indicating a nursery pod! We also noticed fetal folds on their sides as they leaped out of the water. Along our journey we spotted a huge Mola mola that was very relaxed at the surface. We got the best looks! We spotted another one on our way to a pod of dolphins. Lots of birds were sighted along the way!
The sunset trip was simply stunning! The sea conditions really turned around for us! We had glassy waters throughout most of our trip as well as nice calm, not bumpy seas! We got to the drop-off and noticed a few miles out to the west there were hundreds of birds diving and feeding alongside energetic Common dolphins! At first we thought we had a couple hundred Long-beaks, but the longer we spent with them more seemed to appear all around us. We kept going out to the SW and made it to the 9-mile bank! We spent mostly our entire time with dolphins feeding and estimated at least 1000 dolphins! The sunset was the cherry on top! The ride home was nice and smooth! OH! We also spotted a very small 2-3 ft BLUE Shark! Check out the photo!
We hope you’ll join us for a trip soon!
Naturalists, Alison & Vanessa
