We had a fun and swelly day on the water! We had three awesome trips with beautiful sightings all day!
During our morning trip, we cruised out and right off the bat, we encountered a fun pod of ~50 Long-beaked Common dolphins! They were headed south. We continued down south as we heard there were some whales traveling in the same direction. They gave everyone the slip as they were never relocated again.
For our afternoon trip, we set out to the NW and searched for wildlife off La Jolla. It was pretty quiet so we began to switch it up and go SW when we sighted a pod of ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphins heading straight for us! They were in a tight knit group that spread out over a half of a mile. We waved goodbye to them and ventured SW. After passing the drop-off we started to see more bird activity, especially way down south. A few miles down, Captain John spotted a huge aggregation of birds diving and feeding! We caught up with it all and were pleasantly happy to be surrounded by at least 1000 Long-beaked Common dolphins! There were 4 to 5 bird piles with feeding dolphins zooming around them. We were overwhelmed by all the action! As we picked up the pace several Commons raced toward us! They rode the big waves straight to the bow and our wake!
On our sunset trip, we headed west and then hooked it up to the north along the drop-off. It was pretty quiet but then all of a sudden a sneaky Minke popped up beside us. Only a few people saw it, and then it gave us a slip. We sighted a big raft of ~15 California sea lions to the west of us. We said what’s up to them when a spout was sighted out in the distance! We were so happy to hang out with not just one but two Humpback whales! They were slowly headed south traveling side-by-side! With the sunset lighting, their spout illuminated beautifully! We were lucky to see consistent tail flukes raised before they went on a dive! One of our awesome passengers actually got a photo of the whale tail and identified one of the Humpbacks while still with them! It was Kulea ID: CRC-15398! This female Humpback was originally sighted in 2011 and then last sighted in late September. It was exciting to learn that Kulea is a mother! Please search for her on happywhale.com The sunset was absolutely amazing!
We have a trip tomorrow and all week so come join us for some Humpback fun!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
