Humpday Humpbacks!! We ended 2025 with TWO Humpback whales and ~400 Short-beaked Common dolphins!
On our morning trip, we cruised out to the SW and spotted a Humpback whale just inside of the drop-off! It was cruising to the north very slowly. We watched it come up for 2-4 breaths and go down for 2 to 7min dives. We got great looks at it even surfaced beside us a couple times. We also were lucky to see its beautiful tail! It was pretty dark overall with some white specks! We noticed some splashes to the west and were pleasantly surprised to see a huge pod of splashy Short-beaked Common dolphins! We estimated about 400 individuals spread out over 1/4 mile. There was a small subgroup that consisted of lots of babies! The nursery pod was mellow but came over to check us out!
On our afternoon trip, we set out to the west and caught up with another Humpback whale — a HUNGRY HUNGRY Humpback! It lunge fed over and over! Too many we lost count! We were so lucky to see its beautiful throat grooves expanded and could even see into its mouth including its baleen! Their baleen plates are a dark slate gray! It was amazing to see it swimming quickly with a burst of energy and and then turn to its right side and open its mouth wide taking in huge mouth fulls of water and likely krill! On one occasion we did see a fish jumping out of the water. We also noticed on our echosounder there was dense clouds of food at the surface indicating possibly krill! We got a look at its tail a few times and it was a beautiful bright white! We also noticed its long pectoral flippers were bright white which made it easy to spot as it came close to the surface!
We had an amazing year of wildlife sightings and we thank you so much for following along with us! Thank you so much for also hanging out with us on the boat! We can’t wait to see what 2026 has in store for us! Sea ya on the water soon!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
