Beautiful wildlife on our AM and PM trips today! This morning, we headed west out of Mission Bay to begin our day on the water. Just after we reached the continental shelf, we began to see splashes in the distance. We found a small group of 50 common bottlenose dolphins, and on our way back home we found a group of 50 short-beaked common dolphins surfing the wake of a fishing vessel, eventually making their way over to us. Both groups were quite acrobatic, showing breaching, tail-lobbing, chin-slapping and much more. We also sighted some mom and calf pairs in these groups which was very exciting!!
In the afternoon, conditions got slightly bumpier, but we made our way straight out west to hopefully catch up with some more dolphins. Soon, we found ourselves surrounded by a super fin-tastic and spunky group of short-beaked common dolphins!! There were several little ones in this pod, making our encounter even more special. This group was certainly more acrobatic than the last, showing us some backwards breaches and leaping entirely out of the water as they surfed our wake.
It’s really been a wonderful day out here on the water, and we’re excited to update you all later about our sunset trip! Hope to ~sea~ you all soon on a trip with us!
We’re just trying to coast through life like a fin whale! On today’s sunset trip, we had a whale of a time with ~400 common dolphriends, hundreds of sea birds, a few California sea lions and one FINe looking Fin whale! 🙂 Sea conditions and visibility were also great throughout the trip. If you want to enjoy Sunday Funday tomorrow, why don’t you come out with us and we’ll show you a whaley great time!
Naturalists,
Olivia, Vanessa & Melissa
