We caught up with two species of dolphins today! We enjoyed the presence of ~300 Long-beaked Common dolphin! They were slowly traveling to the south along the drop-off! We were excited to sea plenty of cow/calf pairs! The calves were being brave as they approached the bow of the Privateer to bow ride! The water was a brilliant blue/green, the perfect color to witness these beautiful dolphins! We left them behind to the north as they went south. We were cruising along and then all of a sudden we spotted a couple dorsal fins! We found a very mellow pod of ~50 Offshore bottlenose dolphins that were headed north! They were socializing in a nice tight group. We spotted plenty of individuals that launched out of the water a good 10-feet out of the water! There were about 3-4 baby bottlenose that were hanging out together in a nursery pod. We also spotted a familiar bottlenose, the individual that is missing its dorsal fin!
Our last trip of the day was absolutely beautiful! Mother Nature really showed us her best! We had an amazing encounter with over 2000 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They were literally everywhere we looked while out beyond the drop-off. There were over 10 feeding frenzies scattered about! Many of the Common dolphins were zooming around chasing bait while the birds dove feeding in the most concentrated spot. We even got a couple fly-bys from curious California Brown Pelicans! They looked like they were about to land on our boat but kept going checking us out as they passed by! We loved to see some random but exciting stampedes! We would notice out in the distance all the Commons launch out of the water in super fast! As the sun was setting the Commons porpoising out of the water had a beautiful golden glow! The sunset was amazing! We were even lucky enough to see the moon rise!
We hope you’ll join us for a trip soon! We are hearing about Blue whales coming down the coast, so any day we could start to see them here!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
