On our afternoon trip, we had sunny skies and just a little bit of a swell and wind chop. Just a few miles outside of Mission Bay, we spotted white water on the horizon with zig-zagging Common dolphins—650– and maybe a couple thousand wheeling seabirds. We were over-joyed to have the dolphins porpoising toward our boat and jockeying for position in our forward bow wave, a game for the dolphins, as they no longer have to move their caudal peduncle and tail flukes to propel themselves forward! Once we arrived out near the 9-mile mark, we spotted a tall, column-shaped spout, indicative of the largest mammal that has ever inhabited our planet. We watched the blue whale, probably as long as our vessel at 87’, take 10 breaths then arch its back and sound. Up it came 14-minutes later for a repeat performance, this time with great lighting. On our way back, we were fortunate to have a look at a humpback whale moving north. It showed us its dark-pigmented underside of its flukes before we returned back to port at Quivira Basin in Mission Bay. Now is a good time to tell your friends to join us for the beginning of our Blue Whale season! -Biologist Greg
Our sunset trip – we had our eyes on the prize! We set out west hoping that The world’s largest wonder was still waiting for us off shore, with hope in our hearts – we locked our eyes on the horizon and WE FOUND MULTIPLE BLUE WHALES! You’d think after years of seeing these enormous animals it might get stale, but in NEVER does. Their size never fails to steal the air from your lungs, it’s overwhelming, and so humbling. Their breath is so powerful on exhale, that you can feel the air rumble around you. We were lucky to hang out with two of the largest animals to have ever roamed the earth for a long time before the sun left the sky and we had to return to shore.
Naturalist, Alison
