What a spectacular afternoon on the water!
The sunny blue skies made us forget the gloomy couple weeks we’ve recently had, and was a perfect day for whale watching.
The Privateer rolled through the mild swell towards the northwest where we’d spotted wildlife on our morning trip.
Beyond the drop-off about 11 miles from Mission Bay we followed enormous bird piles of pelicans and black vented shearwaters just resting upon the surface of the Pacific to an energetic pod of ~300-~400 long beaked common dolphins! We got to watch these tri-coloured dolphins hunting among the birds and it turned into a full blown feeding frenzy! This of course, it the ideal circumstances for a hungry, hungry humpback to show up, and right on cue, a spout appeared in the mix.
This solo humpback was short winded taking 3-4 breaths at the surface and just 4-5 minute dives, while showing its flukes on every dive.
After turning back towards the coast and encroaching the drop off, we got super lucky seeing a series of spouts from multiple whales! A quad-pod of humpbacks showed up making a splash! We got to see a full breach from one, and some definite competition pod behaviour. Lots of flukes on dives all around.
Humpbacks are still here, and we have trips everyday this week, a superb opportunity to bring the visiting family out on the water with us and show them why we love beautiful San Diego so much.
-Naturalist Ruth
