Special visitors today! We see dolphins on the daily, but Risso’s are a special encounter. Usually, the pods we see are pretty small, maxing out at around 100. This pod was nearly 300! They were far offshore in about 2000 feet of water past the drop off. These deep divers primarily feast on cephalopods like the Argonaut Nautilus, and various species of squid. At one point, we seemed to locate a portion of the pod that was a nursery pod. There were tons of babies that got the zoomies and leapt SO high into the air over and over again.
This usually shy species seemed to gain confidence in numbers, they hung out right next to the boat, leaping into the air and playing with one another.
Man, oh man, we were all squealing when this blubbery little baby went on a breaching spree! The kind of joy that the ocean overflows with – is unparalleled.
Naturalist,
Alison
