TWO Humpback Thursday! We had two thrilling trips with Common dolphins and two Humpback whales off La Jolla!
To start our day, we cruised up to the NW and found ourselves in the La Jolla Canyon! That’s where we had an explosion of LIFE! First, we caught up with the two humpback whales that were slowly headed north. They were interestingly not traveling next to each other, but were separated by about 1/4 mile. We hung out with one that gave us great looks at its head, back and gorgeous tail! We noticed some splashes to the north of us and spotted a huge pod of ~500 Long-beaked Common dolphins. The ride home was smooth with great views of the coastline. We had a surprise visit from a pod of ~5-7 Offshore bottlenose dolphins and ~30 Short-beaked Common dolphins!
On our sunset trip, we raced up to the La Jolla canyon once again! The seas were very quiet on the way up, but sure enough as soon as we got to the canyon we observed a MEGA pod of Long-beaked Common dolphins. They were everywhere we looked! We got amazing looks at calves leaping out of the water as many of the dolphins surfed beside us in our wake. We were about to leave for home when we spotted a spout to the north. We cruised up and stopped to wait for the next sign of the whales. All of sudden the passengers squealed with joy when one Humpback popped up behind us only 50-yds away! Then the other surfaced to our 7 o’clock! We were stoked as they were swimming toward us! We were lucky to see both whales lift their flukes as they went down for their sounding dive. We got one more look as they simultaneously spouted in the setting sun! Their spouts were golden! We waved goodbye and enjoyed the stunning sunset and even a lighting show in some big billowy thunder clouds!
Come join us for a trip to remember!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
