WOW! The biodiversity today was incredible! We headed south west to begin our search. We found a pretty incredible pod of short beaked common dolphins they cruised along side us for quite some time, some even appeared to be checking us out! While we were with the dolphins a brown boobie began circling the the boat, these are a local species but, we see them rarely so it was a nice surprise! As we cruised out west i sighted a small fin peaking out of the water, initially i thought it was a mola but after closer investigation we rolled up on a BLUE SHARK! We turned the engines off and it swam straight for us! Everyone got great looks, this small shark was maybe 5 feet long and we could see the electric blue flashing along its sides as it cruised just beneath the surface! We ran as fast as we could out west to catch up with a pair of blue whales that were headed home to Alaska! We got a few good looks before we had to run back to the jetties. On the way home we sighted a juvenile elephant seal!
The Biodiversity is GOING OFF here in San Diego, we’re STOKED to see whatever is out there this sunset! Keep eyes out, we’ll be reporting back soon!
The variety continued on our Sunset trip! As soon as we left the Mission bay jetties, we spotted a big puffy spout to the south of us! We waited awhile for the whale to surface and were about to leave, when we sighted a second spout way down to the south about a mile away! We caught up with a Southbound Gray! It was slowly cruising coming up for 3-4 breaths and going down for 6-min dives! Every time it went down we were lucky enough to see its flukes! We left it behind and went west and spotted a huge feeding frenzy! There were hundreds of terns squawking about! Underneath them were ~300 Long-beaked Common dolphins circling the area! We enjoyed watching them race to us to say Hello! We were about to leave when a second Gray whale popped up to the south of us. It was a Northbound Gray whale! This one was a bit more shy but we could see its fluke prints as well as its big puffy spout! The sea conditions really smoothed out and had glassy seas by the end of the trip! The sunset was gorgeous! We witnessed a Green flash!
Hope to see you this weekend! It’s gonna be epic!
Naturalists, Alison & Vanessa
