Dolphins all day — and the ocean is changing in all the right ways.
Common dolphins have been rolling in lately, and today they showed up in big numbers. But the real headline is this: our water is looking GREEN again. After a winter of unusually crystal‑clear, deep‑blue water in San Diego, that shift toward green is a good sign. Greener water usually means more cold‑water upwelling, more nutrients, and more wildlife moving through the area.
The coolest part of the day? Most of the common dolphins we saw were clearly hunting teeny‑tiny squid. In the first photo you can actually see one flying out of the water just ahead of a dolphin’s beak. Blink and you’d miss it.
We’ve got one more trip this afternoon, and with the ocean waking up like this, we’re ready for anything out there.
— Naturalist Alison
We were rockin’ and rollin’ out at sea today! We had some fun waves that helped us earn our sea legs! We pushed out to the west and made it past the drop-off. We were in about 1300 feet of water when we began searching to the north! We caught up with an amazing pod of 40-50 Offshore bottlenose dolphins! They were zooming around playing in the big waves, our wake and riding the bow! Some breached, porpoised and surfed beside us! We spotted a handful of calves hanging with their mothers! It was cool to see them so interested in us! Then a big raft of California sea lions popped up in the mix! It was a fun to see them interacting with each other! We noticed they were hangin out right on the drop-off and were likely feeding on squid!
We waved goodbye and ventured on to the north and enjoyed the beautiful sunset! We also got to witness the 78th Newport to Ensenada International Yacht Race!
We hope to sea you this weekend!
Naturalist,
Vanessa
