Captain Michael was confident we’d do better than yesterday, a day in which not a single whale watching company had any cetaceans to look at. I blame it on the Santa Ana winds coming from the east, the region of the Great Basin and Mojave deserts. The Santa Ana winds inhibit biological productivity, leading to less upwellling of nutrients which lead to plankton blooms, fish and wildlife. We now have a pattern of onshore winds which leads to more nutrients, forage fish, zooplankton which leads to more views of marine mammals.
We went 10-miles offshore and found around 300 short-beaked common dolphins foraging on dispersed fish. They came over to play with our vessel and looked at us as much as we looked at them.
On our way back, Captain Michael found 2 humpback whales that seemed to be in a hurry to migrate down to its breeding grounds in Mexico or Central America. We got some good looks. We have one more trip today. See you soon, whale watchers. —Biologist Greg McCormack
