Sunday morning we headed way off shore, over 15 miles from Mission Bay to the deep water where we found a very large fin whale! We observed it taking 3 breath at the surface before taking a deeper sounding dive and was pretty consistent with this pattern.
On our afternoon excursion we changed direction a little and got so lucky with the mother-load of a pod of ~800 short-beaked common dolphins! That number tip toed so close to megapod status and in typical “shorty” fashion, it was popping off out there with massive leaps and surfing in dense chorus lines.
It was a good day for birds on the water too with multiple cocos boobies seen circling the boat, as well as elegant and royal terns, black vented shearwaters, and red throated phalaropes.
We’re getting back on the water shortly for our sunset trip.
Stay tuned for more fun.
-Naturalist Ruth
