3 Different species of Baleen Whales and 2 different species of toothed whales today!
It might have been winter solstice today but it was beautiful with sunshine calm seas and warm weather aboard the Privateer today.
Our Sunday morning whale watch started with an immediate southbound gray whale! Within 15 minutes of leaving the jetties we located this barnacle covered buddy and observed a few breath cycles before heading out to deeper water.
Beyond the the drop -off a duo of humpback whales were sighted! This pair were syncing up their dives and hanging out close together while exhibiting travel mode behaviour. We saw majestic whale tales on most of their dives too.
There must have been baitballs in the area because a pod of ~200 long-beaked common dolphins were prowling around also! They enjoyed bow-riding and porpoising around and seemed to be a passanger favourite today.
Sunday Afternoon was equally calm and sunny, but had completely different sightings to our morning trip!
Our journey was towards the northwest this time around where we caught up with a large fin whale. It was only traveling about 1/3 of a mile during its 10-12 minute dive times, which is both short-winded and short-distance for a mighty Fin!
We rounded out an absolutely lovely day on the ocean with a surprising pod of ~5 pacific white sided dolphins! It was the best surprise seeing one racing to our bow out of nowhere to surf, the crew was particularly excited to see them as the white sided dolphins skipped their San Diego vacation in 2024.
We have trips with availability and calm seas early this holiday week before storms roll in midweek and plenty of wildlife to be seen!
-Naturalist Ruth
