Sunny Sunday on the Pacific
The heatwave is starting to wane making for a very comfortable afternoon on the Pacific.
We started out early in the trip finding a small pod of ~10 long beaked common dolphins surfing our wake.
Making our way south a spout was sighted inside the 3 mile line from a younger humpback!
This stunner showed its flukes every single dive and only had 6 minute dives.
After we started making our way back to Mission Bay another pod of ~30 long beaked common dolphins showed up making some massive leaps along side.
Showing off for all the passengers aboard the Privateer.
On the sunset trip we headed about as south as we can go and still be San Diego Waters, to a known area where whales have been observed feeding this week and got lucky! A small scattered pod of ~ 30 long beaked common dolphins were diving under some hungry sea birds. We observed them cooperatively hunting together with the dolphins driving bait fish to the surface making it easier for the birds to snack on.
Then got a call from another whale watching boat (Thanks Scout), where several spouts had been within our range.
We zoomed over there and got to see spouts from 2 different large whales AND a smaller spout.
We had a cow calf pair and an escort!
The cow and calf were observed “snorkeling” just below the surface and taking shorter dives, typical behaviour when a little whale is in tow.
We ended the day with a pale pastel sky before heading back to the dock.
-Naturalist Ruth
