Our morning trip had some spectacular and rare sightings!
On our way outside the bay we encountered a small pod of Risso’s dolphins. As Captain Danny continued along the shore of Pacific Grove, we came across another pod of Risso’s, but this one had a very special member; Casper the albino Risso. As far as we know Casper is the only albino Risso’s dolphin in the world!
While with these dolphins we spotted a couple whale spouts. We said goodbye to the dolphins and headed towards the whales. At first we only saw a pair of humpback whales, but we soon saw lots of spouts to the west and southwest. Captain Danny steered the Pacifica toward a particularly exciting looking area. We were watching some feeding humpbacks when our grand finale showed up…
Two Orcas appeared out of nowhere, a male and a female. At first we thought they were just passing through, but later we realized they weren’t there to play. There were many sea lions around, most of them swimming as quickly as possible toward land. The Orcas had singled out a sea lion and proceeded to ram, bite, and tail slap the unfortunate pinniped. We watched until the sea lion was long dead, taken underwater, and devoured.
These amazing sightings, paired with the steep chop and heavy wind, had us all feeling like we had some stories to tell once we were back on land,
-Naturalist Alfredo
