What an absolutely REMARKABLE DAY! These are the days that fuel our fire, light our souls and bring our inner child back to life. We had Whales and dolphins, not just that but a LUNGE FEEDING HUMPBACK, the most stunning weather conditions and a sunset that will remain scorched onto our memories for a life time!
Our evening trip was Russian roulette – we knew there had been whales north and south but we headed straight out with nothin but determination and a little luck on our side. Pretty quickly, we sighted a massive bird pile about 5 miles off the coast – the closer we got – the more INSANE it looked! There were thousands of birds diving, hundreds (400-500) long-beaked common dolphins and a BIG spout, a HUMPBACK WHALE! We found the most insane feeding frenzy, the whole boat was squealing and pointing at all the dolphins and the whale. We noticed some spunky dive patterns and knew something was up. The humpback began vertical lunge feeding! It continued lunge feeding sometimes vertically sub surface , leaving a huge wake behind. A behavior rarely seen in southern CA. Since we found the wildlife so early, we spent a whole hour with this crazy action as the sun sunk closer to the horizon, setting the sky on fire.
We had the similar luck on our afternoon trip with a vibrant pod of long beaked common dolphins foraging for food while the same humpback whale followed them around feeding on bait fish. The dolphins were moving fast, maybe 150 of them all teaming up to corral the fish while making good time to hang out with us. The humpback had the zoomies and kept surprising us with the direction and location it would surface in.
A positively DAZZLING day on the water!
Get out here, I think it’s gunna be good for a while!
Naturalist, Alison
