And it’s a marlin! Our sunset cruise had a fairly typical excursion: beautiful bottlenose dolphins in the bay, dainty, playful common dolphins, a huge mola mola (largest bony fish on earth!) and some lounging sea lions. What we were not expecting was one of the fastest and coolest fish on the planet: a marlin! It was casually surfing in the calm swell, only showing two tiny tips of its dorsal and caudal (tail) fins. We really only figured out what it was when deckhand, Taylor (an avid fisherman), called out marlin! Sure enough, it turned into the sunlight and we saw this magnificent animal. Marlin can be well over 400 pounds and swim at speeds of 50 miles per hour!
In all my years of whale watching and working on boats, I’m so happy I can still see something for the first time!
Naturalist – Colleen
