Vanessa James
Today we headed out West towards a bait ball being bombarded by common dolphins, brown pelicans, sooty shearwaters, and cormorants when we saw three Humpbacks feeding alongside them. Two of them we were able to snag photos of the underside of their tails (that they weren’t afraid to show us with that tail lob) that … Read more
A sneaky blue showed their tail! After spinning us around a couple times we made our way far into this distance eyeing a massive bait ball near Cabrillo. There we found 2 humpbacks, 2 dozen sea lions, 400+ dolphins, and hundreds of birds. One of the humpback was theatrically lunge feeding for us and even … Read more
Headed out this afternoon and encountered a Fin whale, a Minke whale, and two Humpbacks that were rolling around in the giant kelp floating near the surface. We also found plenty of Long‑Beaked Common dolphins packed in on a bait ball, joining the Humpbacks and seabirds in a full feeding frenzy. The whole area was … Read more
We cruised out to the Northwest when we encountered a large flock of Shearwaters and decided to head out the direction they were taking us. We landed on a bait ball being visited by Fin whales, Humpbacks, Sea lions, Long-beaked Common dolphins and hundreds of Pelicans. They put on an amazing show of the diversity … Read more
Massive dolphin party to the north today — and we were right in the middle of it. We set out this afternoon and almost immediately found HUNDREDS of short‑beaked common dolphins just off the drop. They were blasting out of the water again and again, sometimes 10 dolphins airborne at once, launching 15 feet out … Read more
Today on the Inspiration we found the most playful pod of common dolphins about 6 miles offshore. They were breaching , tail slapping, and chin slapping. We were able to track them down by spotting a few seabirds in the distance. Best fishes, Naturalist Madi
What. A. Day. On. The. Water. The Pacific really saved the best for last – we got an INCREDIBLE muggy minke to wrap things up! (Video in comments) This afternoon we jetted all the way down to the border and arrived just in time to watch a massive feeding frenzy cruising into Mexico. We were … Read more
Days of the dolphins continues! Thousands of common dolphins and their babies drove small fish up and down the coast just outside of Mission Bay. We also saw the beginning of some bird migrations such as black storm petrels and red necked phalaropes. One an eagle eyed passenger spotted a Nazca booby! San Diego is … Read more
We caught up with hundreds of Common dolphins on our single afternoon trip! We left Mission bay and cruised out to the NW. Along the way, we sighted some major feeding frenzies! There was an awesome bait ball right at the surface only a few miles from shore! We spotted Long-beaked Common dolphins zooming around … Read more
This afternoon the Privateer sailed south again to search a whale feeding ground. Early into the trip we spotted a distinctively large spout belong to our 3rd blue whale in 3 days! As we raced across towards it the whale dove and we lost site of it. We edged further towards the boarder and right … Read more