No difficulty in finding whales today, as Captain Rod took the helm and ventured out west (we love going west) to the edge of the Monterey Canyon. Immediately upon our arrival over the edge of the shelf, humpback whales were spotted left and right. On the way out, a pod of Risso’s Dolphin gave us a great show totaling about 150 in number. After watching a group of four humpbacks for some time, we ventured a bit further offshore, and quickly found a small pod of Pacific White Sided dolphin, who immediately accosted the boat for some good bowriding. Strangely enough, our second trip had a bit of trouble. Not in finding whales (there were plenty), but in watching them! Group after group turned into 10-15+ minute divers, and were highly unpredictable in where they surfaced (they can cover quite a bit of ground in 10 minutes!) Hence, we hopped from group to group, until finally settling on a group of four who were feeding among hundreds of Sea Lions and with a large flock of gulls overhead (indicating that the school of fish was shallow). Indeed, our patience paid off, and this feeding frenzy put on a fantastic show, and our passengers’ enthusiasm filled us with satisfaction. What a great and strange job we have.
-Naturalist Isaiah
