Vanessa James
Got to hang with a scattering of Long beak pods through the North! First pod was a little shy but the next pod was super outgoing and curious. This is my last trip as naturalist. Thank you for a great summer San Diego Whale Watch! As always… Best Fishes, -Naturalist Madi
We headed out to the deep water on our Monday afternoon excursion looking for baleen whales and toothed whales. In the distance, we saw a solid line of splashing white moving water coming from a stampede from a huge pod of ~500 common dolphins! It was incredible to see so many wild animals just being … Read more
Out of the jetties to the glassy Pacific we headed, starting out unusually calm And quiet with barely a ripple beyond the slow rolling long period swell. It was so calm we saw the grey shadowy bodies of the dolphins before the splashes. Initially we had a pod of ~50 long-beaked common dolphins who were … Read more
Making eye contact with wild cetaceans just HITS DIFFERENT. There’s an intelligence there you can FEEL in your bones. You’d think it would be the same feeling as looking your cat or dog in the eye — but they look back at you differently. It’s indescribable… you’ll have to come see for yourself! We’re on … Read more
Couldn’t get enough of this group of long-beaked common dolphins with this high flyer! You might notice the pink coloration along this individuals belly caused by strenuous exercise which then dilates the blood vessels in their body. Common dolphins use counter-shading to help blend in with their surroundings, so this is best visible on their … Read more
We got a BLUE WHALE! And so much other wildlife today. The morning took us way out to the drop, where we found 150+ short‑beaked common dolphins racing around, feeding, and leaping SO HIGH out of the water. Our search led us to a pod of 5 bottlenose cruising through some glassy water, and eventually … Read more
We headed out today and found a couple ENORMOUS pods of dolphins. We found a pod of short‑beaks in glass, but one of the mama dolphins appeared to have a long‑beaked common dolphin calf in tow — maybe a hybrid? Maybe adoption? Who knows. These dolphins were surfing at the bow, launching out of the … Read more
Ever seen an 80,000‑pound animal LUNGE out of the water? WE DID! We were so lucky this morning! We headed straight out to the west and almost IMMEDIATELY found a humpback whale blasting through the swells — a huge spout erupting over the horizon line. We hung out as it cruised along for a while… … Read more
We had a really awesome afternoon trip! We set out to the splish splashy Pacific and were treated to windy but fun seas! We headed SW to the drop-off and began to notice a bunch of birds diving to the north of us! Hundreds of terns were grouping up diving and then would scatter and … Read more
This evening we had dolphins and a stellar sunset but the humpback whale snuck in at the very end and hung out on a bait ball right as the green flash crossed the sky! Best fishes, -Naturalist Madi