With an enthusiastic half full boat we headed past Pt Loma to where the action has been the last couple day and first encountered a hunting pod of ~100 short beaked common dolphins. They were more interested in food than us so we left them and followed all the shearwaters to the next feeding frenzy where some long beaked common dolphins were porpoising around. Among the dolphins was a humpback whale! The beauty was short winded going down for just a couple minutes before coming up again but kept us on our toes exactly where it was gonna pop up next, we got a little whale mugging on the bow and stern.
In the distance we saw a whole lot of commotion with massive splashes from a humpback tail lobbing and tail slapping!
This went on for 4 or 5 mins before back to regular programming of breath cycles and a deep dive with a big arch of the back, I told everyone to “think breach” and just a few seconds later the humpback responded with the most perfect full body breach!!
The timing was impeccable.
Some more dolphins came in to party and so did a minke whale which our passengers came to understand why they’re known as “stinky minke” with their rank breath.
The sunset shaped up to be really beautiful making for a perfect evening on the water.
More trips this week with hopefully more acrobatic humpback action.
-Naturalist Ruth
