Captain Brian found us a Minke whale about 6-miles offshore in about 700’ of water. He put the boat into neutral and the whale came up about 4 times close to our vessel, even spouting once. We could all smell the nickname of this whale, the “stinky” Minke.
Further offshore to the northwest off of LaJolla, we found a pod of maybe 140 long-beaked common dolphins foraging on fish with about 800 Black-vented shearwaters feeding. It was a feeding frenzy, an all-you-can-eat ocean buffet table. We heard a lot of hooting and hollering as the dolphins were very energetic and seemed to feed off of our energy. The sun was beginning to set, and we saw the tip of the sun turn green due to the refraction in the earths atmosphere of the light rays, the famous Green Flash. Jules Verne’s novel The Green Ray (in French, Le Rayon vert) was published 143 years ago in 1882. We had a lovely return home on this Labor Day Weekend holiday, with the First Quarter moon not too far above the western horizon. Enjoy the rest of the summer, everybody. Hope to see you and your friends on a whale watch again soon. —Naturalist Greg McCormack