San Diego Whale Sightings — Updated Daily!

See what our naturalists have spotted during our last 7 trips in Mission Bay and off the coast of San Diego.

16

Whales Spotted

7,300

Dolphins Spotted

5

Different Species Spotted

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Today's Sightings Summary

Detailed Sightings Log - September 12, 2026

Tour Species Count Behavior
Sunset TourLong-beaked Common Dolphin1000Running for their livesForagingSurfingSurface ActivePlaying
Sunset TourOrcas8HuntingMugging

Detailed Sightings Log - September 12, 2026

Tour Species Count Behavior
Mid-day TourHumpback Whale1BreathingFeeding
Mid-day TourLong-beaked Common Dolphin750ForagingBreathingSurfingStampede

Detailed Sightings Log - September 12, 2026

Tour Species Count Behavior
Morning TourLong-beaked Common Dolphin750ForagingSurfingSleepingStampedeSurface ActivePlaying
Morning TourHumpback Whale1BreathingMegapod
Morning Tour

Detailed Sightings Log - September 11, 2026

Tour Species Count Behavior
Mid-day TourLong-beaked Common Dolphin1100Surface ActiveCow/Calf PairBow Riding

Recent Sightings

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Short Swim!

Short-fin mako shark swam around the Privateer this morning before we even made it three miles from…

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Dolphin Party!

The ocean absolutely erupted with life on our afternoon trip. Hundreds of common dolphins lit up the…

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They can deFINitely move!

Holy mola we covers a lot of water today. Out beyond the drop-off we saw an enormous…

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Bottlenose for days!

We had a fun group out from Montana! We enjoyed nice sea conditions and cruised out to…

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What’s better than a hundred dolphins?

HOW ABOUT 700 DOLPHINS!? We were treated to a huge pod of common dolphins complete with breaches,…

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Risso’s!

Rocking and rolling on our Monday afternoon trip we made way to some extremely deep water, we…

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Our Typical Route

While our route varies with sightings, we typically follow a similar course near known feeding areas.

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This Year's Stats

Total: 24,147 dolphins and 317 whales.

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Departing daily from Mission Bay.

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