Our guests brought good weather and clear skies on a spectacular Friday morning. Just a few miles offshore, Greg announced a pinniped or “flipper-footed” mammal on the starboard side. The pinnipeds include the seals and sea lions. This was a Guadalupe Fur Seal, a small sea lion of the Otariidae family. It was small and very cute with very long front & rear flippers. Later, our friend Armando yelled out “spout at 3-O’clock”. Captain Bryan investigated. After an 11-minute dive, the whale popped up a mile south. Deckhand Brandon pointed it out. Eventually, we figured we had 3 humpback whales heading southbound. After a few looks at these whales, Captain Bryan decided to head further offshore over the Coronado Escarpment, what fishermen call the “9-Mile Bank”. Out there we could see the seabirds, including a lone Northern Fulmar and Pink-footed shearwater, along with hundreds of pelicans, cormorants and gulls going wild for a surface feeding foraging bout. A humpback whale, escorted by dolphins, got into the feeding frenzy. We counted 300 Long-beaked common dolphins, many of which took some time to play with our wake and the pressure wave off of our bow. It was amazing to witness this fecundity, the spectacular bounty of life. We had a harbor seal and California Sea lions in the Quivira Basin of Mission Bay, a Guadalupe fur seal and several humpback whales, 4 species of marine mammals out of 130 possible species to see on our marvelous Blue Planet. This was an excellent day for being on a boat on the tranquil Pacific Ocean. Hope to see you for our sunset trip later today or on a future trip. —Naturalist Greg McCormack
We were so happy to see a Humpback whale on our sunset trip! There were also three other mystery whales and a Guadalupe fur seal sighted!
We enjoyed a beautiful sunset trip that was nice and smooth with amazing visibility. We could actually see out to San Clemente, which is approx. 60-miles away. We cruised out to the west and spotted a huge spout to the west of us. It would spout once every 1-2 minutes. It kept cruising out to the west further from us. We spotted a Guadalupe fur seal jug handling at the surface! We were searching for it when a passenger spotted another spout to the SW of us. We waited but never saw them again but lucked out as we sighted a Humpback headed south! It came up for 3-4 breaths with a short 3-5min dive. We had great looks as it lifted its flukes every time! We were also fortunate to see a rainblow! The sunset was absolutely stunning! Even way after the sun went down we enjoyed the golden orange glow on the horizon!
We have our extended tour tomorrow! Sign up now for 6hours of fun! Hope to sea you there!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
