Today was a day of rarities! We saw 2 blue whales STAMPEDING through the water. Blue whales can swim at speeds over 20 miles per hour when they want to and we just couldn’t catch up! We have seen burst speeds for short intervals in the past, but this was the first time this crew had seen such a prolonged marathon race! Feeling a little exhausted after our blues got out of sight, we turned our heads and BAM a group of about 30 Risso’s dolphins resting at the surface! Instead of seeing the blue glow from blue whales, we saw 30 blue glowing bodies together! All the crew on Privateer noticed we had never had such a surface active, friendly group of Risso’s so close together. As I studied their scratches and rakes on their skin, I felt like an anthropologist, studying an ancient language. I wondered what stories those scars told as we headed back to land but the ocean wasn’t done with us! A friendly pod of about 200 short beaked common dolphins. They were obviously hunting, doing lots of direction changes and leaps as they are wont to do.
Today was truly the day of chasing and eventually finding the “blue glow.”
Naturalist, Colleen
