As soon as we pulled away from the dock, we had some “liquid sunshine”, a bit of rain came down for just a few minutes. We had seen virga, which is what happens when rain evaporates before it hits the Earth. Then, a few sprinkles came down at the edge of a large fog bank, which was sitting offshore to greet us as we entered the Pacific Ocean.
It wasn’t long before it started burning off, but slowly. Now and then we had a “blue hole” or blue skies above, surrounded by the gray, evaporating fog.
We journeyed far to the west and then headed north west. After a long search, we were able to find a large flock of birds flying erratically on the horizon 3 miles away. As we motored closer, we could see the splashes from dolphins. “There she blows!” Sure enough, we had a spout from a humpback, one of 14 species of baleen whale. There was a large bait ball of forage fish, producing an “all you can eat ocean buffet table” found about 8-miles off of Black’s beach and La Jolla Shores. After some great looks at the humpback and dolphins, we had to turn-around a voyage of 12 miles from the jetties.
The humpback whale was eminently identifiable with the all-white under sides of the tail flukes. It z would come up for one breath and then show its tail flukes and dive down in pursuit of the moving fish and dolphins. It was a smaller, younger humpback probably a two or three year-old sub-adult, maybe 37’ in length. On our way back, we found a fur seal, likely a Guadalupe or perhaps Northern fur seal. The sea state and the weather became ideal over the last hour of travel. It was a little bit rough from the start so everybody became hardy Mariners. Join us on a future wildlife safari! -Naturalist Greg
What an incredible streak of luck! Or maybe WE’RE IN FOR A GOOD FALL!!!!! We’ve had humpbacks every single day for the last week or more! Sometimes up to 7 in a trip! This evening we had a huge feeding frenzy going off right about at the drop off. Hundreds of dolphins at play with a humpback whale from our earlier trip! There were thousands of birds in the sky waiting for the opportunity to dive in and chow down on the bait concentrated in our waters.
The wild life is abundant, and you all should be rushing to book your next trip!
Naturalist, Alison
