We had a BLAST with a HUMPBACK WHALE and COMMON DOLPHINS!
We set out toward deeper water on our morning trip and found a big pod of Short-beaked Common dolphins just outside of the drop-off! They popped up all around us as they traveled to the north. We continued out about 12-miles from shore and everywhere we looked there were Long-beaked Common dolphins cruising around. We enjoyed hanging out with pod after pod! Some bow rode the boat and others breached. There were lots of cow/calf pairs playing next to our boat! We spotted a Mola mola on the way home.
On our afternoon trip, we set out to the west once again, and spotted a pod of ~100 Long-beaked Common dolphins traveling to the south. We got great looks as they were very boat friendly! We passed the drop-off and hung out with a juvenile Humpback whale! It was observed following a small pod of Long-beaked Common dolphins! It also wasn’t going in any one specific direction, and more like in all directions! We were even lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the Humpback throwing its tail into the air! It went on a sounding dive and caught up with the dolphins again. We noticed a couple of huge feeding frenzies with hundreds of birds diving to the north of us. Another big pod of ~150 Long-beaked Common dolphins cruised in from the south and we hung out with them as the Humpback surfaced nearby. We waved goodbye to our new whale and dolphriends! The Humpy was last seen traveling south, so we are hoping we catch up with it on our sunset cruise! So if you are here in SD, come on down!
On our sunset trip, we travelled west towards the drop-off and encountered so many happy dolphriends! We found two active pods of ~150 long-beaked common dolphins! We found our first pod around ~3 miles offshore, we hung out with them for a good amount of time. They led us towards another awesome pod of ~150 long-beaked common dolphins. We love seeing these beaky boys. They were leaping out of the water and playing alongside the Privateer. We also saw so many calves! It was a bit chilly on the way in reminding us of the changing of the seasons as we enter fall. Fall is our unofficial humpback whale season and we’re so excited to see more humpbacks whales this fall!
Naturalist,
Vanessa & Melissa
