Whale, whale, whale, what did the gray whale say to the california sea lion?
Long time, no sea! Today, we saw an incredible raft of ~10 California sea lions! They looked so cute as they popped up next to the Privateer and checked us out! Then, we travelled very far south past Cabrillo National Monument and found a heart-shaped spout from a gray whale! We hung out with this gray whale for a couple of breath cycles. It was going down for ~3 minute dives. At one point, it even popped up super close to us on our port bow! We wished it whale and made our way back to Quivira basin. Our afternoon trip was a bit quiet. However, we managed to pick up at least ~4 Mylar balloons throughout the trip. It really made us think about how we can all serve as ocean stewards on a daily basis. Here at San Diego Whale Watch we try our best to protect and conserve our ocean ecosystems by picking up Mylar balloons whenever we encounter them on the water. We also host beach clean ups every other month.
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset cruise! We started the trip with about 5-7 Coastal bottlenose dolphins in the Mission bay jetties! They swam right up to our bow and briefly surfed in our wake! We continued out to the west and spotted some Short-beaked Common dolphins! They came out of nowhere and zoomed up to us and then continued back toward land. There was about 15-20 in total! We continued just past the drop-off and hung out with a NORTHBOUND Gray whale! It was following the drop-off contour and came up for 1-2 breaths and had 5-7-min dives. It was a small juvenile that displayed a nice heart-shaped spout! We left it behind and continued on in search for more wildlife!
This is about the time we start to see both southbound and northbound Gray whales! So come out soon, it’s Halftime in the Gray whale season!
Naturalists,
Melissa & Vanessa
