Some trips we have to work a little harder to find wildlife, but today felt like we were part of a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC documentary! The sounds from all the different species of marine mammals & birds was breathtaking! We could hear the long-beaked common dolphins whistling around, the birds squaking about and the humpbacks with their powerful blow! We even saw the humpback whales vertically lunge feed!! There was at least ~350 LB common dolphins, two humpback whales, thousands of birds, and ~15 California sea lions. One of the humpback whales was clearly called “Snowflake”, we could tell by the white pattern on the underside of their tail flukes. We also saw a massive baitball of northern anchovies and the water was so clear we could see the LB common dolphins swimming through the bait to catch their prey! It was so hard to leave this magical area but we’re hoping they still out there for the next trip coming up! So please stay tuned! ❤
No two trips are ever the same, on days like these – we always HOPE we can find what we had on the earlier trip again. The sunset trip wasn’t the same but it was just as good! A bit more biodiversity. Coastal bottlenose made their way into mission bay and followed us all the way out to the ocean. We very quickly spotted a orthbound gray whale BOOKING it up north and it crossed JUST FEET from our bow! We tailed it for a bit before heading west in hopes to find the overwhelming amount of biomass just outside the drop off. We found ~ 700 long beaked common dolphins all feeding with two humpback whales! One was close by and one stayed far to the west. The westerly whale breached in glow of golden sunset light! It was AMAZING! All of this while surrounded by dolphins and a near by humpback.
Naturalist,
Melissa & Alison
