Olivia Trahan
Olivia is a senior pursuing her B.S. in Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, and brings extensive experience in marine mammal research, stranding response and science communication/outreach. Olivia works with the UNCW Marine Mammal Stranding Program back home, assisting in responses and necropsies of stranded marine mammals along the NC coast. Additionally, she is completing her thesis in the Ramirez Population & Food Web Ecology Lab, characterizing loggerhead sea turtle growth rates through aging their bones (like counting growth rings on a tree)! Most recently, she served as a Soundwatch Intern at The Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, WA, where she patrolled both U.S. and Canadian waters aboard a small research vessel, collecting data on vessel activity and killer whale behavior, conducting public outreach on and off the water, and educating boaters on how to reduce disturbances to the critically endangered Southern Resident killer whales. In her free time, Olivia enjoys wildlife photography, herping, crocheting, birding, hiking, drawing, and playing guitar. She is excited to bring her energy, field experience, and passion for conservation to the SDWW team as both Naturalist and Deckhand!
The last full day of summer has arrived. Tomorrow, the Autumnal Equinox occurs at 11:21 PDT. The celestial sun will be directly above the equator and no shadow would be cast at 12:00 PM if someone put a stake in the ground. We are in a transitional period… the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere … Read more
We had reports of a rare sighting, that of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Killer Whales, and so we headed south to try and find them. We passed Sunset Cliffs, Fort Rosecrans National Cemetary and the lighthouse at Cabrillo National Monument, near the entrance to San Diego Bay and the huge US Navy presence. We could … Read more
Just two miles beyond the Mission Bay Channel entrance, our skipper Captain Bryan, mentioned a shark breaching. Lucky for us, it breached 8 times. Bryan yelled: “How lucky are we to see a Common Thresher, Alopias vulpinus, breach multiple times!” I was able to get about a half-dozen decent photos of this shark with the … Read more
We had a bit of hazey smoke at the beginning of our trip. Austin, our deckhand and one of our captains, said he saw a brush fire beneath Interstate 5 and 805 just a few miles away on his commute to work. We enjoyed the barking and antics of the California sea lions at the … Read more
Sunny skies and a fresh breeze greeted our guests as they waited in line next to our floating dock in Quivira Basin, on Mission Bay. We noticed two Snowy Egrets and a black-crowned night-heron just below and the bright orange, State marine fish, the Garibaldi. Once underway to visit the nearby floating bait dock, we … Read more
We had a spectacular, warm sunny afternoon excursion 9-miles off the San Diego coastline. We were fortunate in finding two large pods of short-beaked common dolphins cavorting, foraging and leaping out of the water. These dolphin pods took the time to check us out on the dolphin equivalent of a “human watching tour”. They showed … Read more
What a DIFFERENT ocean! Everything you could dream of seeing on a whale watch, we got and MORE! Whales YES plural and hundreds of dolphins everywhere we looked! We got word early that there was a feeding frenzy just a bit south west of the jetties. When we got on scene, there were probably 400 … Read more
On our afternoon trip, we had choppy seas and two great sightings. At the Mission Bay Channel entrance, we saw a half-dozen Nearshore Bottlenose dolphins foraging for fish and surfing some of the swells toward Ocean Beach and the cement pier. Ten miles offshore, over the Coronado Escarpment known as “Nine Mile Bank”, we came across … Read more
Tuesday September 2, 2025 – PM Once we got past the jetties and into the Pacific Ocean, we saw the whitecaps, indicating a wind speed of 9–14 knots or 10–15 mph. The larger the area that the wind blows across the ocean and the stronger the wind, the larger the swell. Fetch is a mariners term, along … Read more
Sunday of Labor Day Weekend was a sunny one and our guest-passengers enjoyed it immensely. Captain Michael took us out about 7-miles offshore into water over 1000’ deep to an incredible spectacle, what is known as a “baitball” of forage fish, likely sardines and/or sardines. It had to be one of the largest prey patches of the entire … Read more