A STUNNING DAY on the ocean, we’ve got a short period swell rolling through but the weather was gorgeous, warm air, blue skies, clear water. We caught up with a MEGAPOD of long-beaked common dolphins that were breaking into stampede intermittently – the energy was intoxicating, you could almost feel their excitement on the boat! While we were with the commons, we sighted some strange splashes that almost looked like a spout, but when we headed over we found a pod of bottlenose dolphins, nearly 75 behaving very differently. They were a playful kind of mellow, surfing and socializing around the boat.
Sunset conditions got even better, swells calmed down and we headed out to the 9. We got WAY out there but found a pod of about 150 bottlenose with an incredibly tenacious baby that had left mom’s side to surf at the bow and in our wake, FASTEST BABY EVER! It was young, still having fetal fold but this little nugget stole the hearts of everyone on board. On our way back, we found a more playful pod that were launching into the air out of the wake as the sun sank low in the sky creating some magical backlighting!
Naturalist, Alison
