What. A. Day. On. The. Water.
The Pacific really saved the best for last – we got an INCREDIBLE muggy minke to wrap things up! (Video in comments)
This afternoon we jetted all the way down to the border and arrived just in time to watch a massive feeding frenzy cruising into Mexico. We were only about 500 ft from the boundary line! From nearly a mile out we watched one of the humpbacks breach SIX times – full body launches, like it was trying to touch the sky. By the time we reached the action, we had three humpbacks feeding, a few hundred common dolphins, and a couple of minke whales doing their classic “pop up once and vanish forever” routine.
But the sunset trip… that’s where the magic really hit.
Our evening minke was a whale we’ve seen before – super recognizable thanks to a distinct cookie‑cutter shark bite just ahead of its dorsal on the right side. This whale was in a mood. A friendly whale! It came right over to the boat to check us out. In the video you can even see its eyeball staring right back at you.
Since we couldn’t join the Mexico vacation party, we headed north for sunset -and it felt like dolphins were everywhere we turned. Pod after pod after pod. The ocean was alive.
And then the sky put on its own show. The clouds lifted, the seas went glassy, and we got that golden light shimmering across the water with wispy clouds drifting through a rainbow of pastels as the last light slipped away.
A perfect ending to a wild, beautiful day.
-Naturalist Alison
