10-2-21 “Proud of our Sightings, Passenger Enthusiasm was High”

Naturalist Log for Saturday, October 2nd: Morning fog quickly burned off to reveal two lunge feeding humpback whales along the shallow waters off the town of Marina. After watching several lunges, we made way for the Monterey Submarine Canyon, and ran along its course out to the west, briefly stopping for two humpbacks before several small splashes, out to the west, caught our attention: Three hundred Risso’s Dolphin, travelling with four humpback whales! We tracked this great stampede until time to return to port. As the second trip made its way out, a thick layer of fog moved in, but we had little trouble finding a cow-calf pair of humpbacks (named “Rip Curl” and her baby “Maverick”). It wasn’t easy, but we managed to keep good track of these animals despite the poor visibility until suddenly a pod of 30 Bottlenose Dolphin appeared, bowriding and splashing all along the side of the boat, with even several small calves in their midst. With fog as thick as it was, we were quite proud of our sightings, and passenger enthusiasm was high. Sunshine and clear skies appeared on our way home, adding a beautiful finish to an already successful day.–