Getting back into the swing of things after our Easter weekend getting out to the Pacific where we found a solo fin whale hanging out on the drop off, it was moving with speed but circling around the same area, most likely feeding.
Some splashes and little spouts appeared with a large pod of ~100 off shore bottlenose dolphins. They were causing a spectacle with a lot of tail slapping and back breaches, and a lot of people watching.
Making our way back towards mission bay, a small pod of ~40 Long beaked common dolphins were hunting just outside the entrance of the jetties.
Making for a 2 species of toothed whales and a baleen whale trip.
On our sunset trip we headed out to the drop-off with slightly less wind than our previous trip.
It was sunny and pretty calm. Making for good conditions to spot the absolute smallest minke whale. Not much bigger than the bottlenose dolphins we saw earlier in the day.
Seemingly a juvenile or sub adult this mini minke was pretty curious and came up and touched our stern! Of course, we were sitting in neutral knowing a whale was close by, but getting that close was unexpected and felt like it came out of nowhere. Minkes can be pretty erratic in general keeping you on your toes guessing where they will pop up next.
We had a very cool sunset with a slight fog bank, making the sun almost look pixelated and filtered as it set. Right after sunset a small but acrobatic pod of ~10 long beaked common dolphins popped up as striking silhouettes against the pastel skies.
-Naturalist Ruth
