We had some of the most beautiful conditions of the year today! Captain Danny, deckhand Andrew, and I set out sail on the New Horizon, pointing out North-West to the open ocean. We had heard whisper of some dolphins in that area and wanted to see if we could track them down. We didn’t manage to find these dolphins initially but instead came across a group of three Gray Whales. We did manage to get a few quick surfacings from this group, but soon they started taking longer and longer dives. As we were trying to decide what to do with our remaining time, we spied a whole lot of birds a bit further North-West of us. We left our quiet Gray Whales to their migration and pushed out to the birds. This was where the show was! We found at least 10 Humpback Whales, and hundreds of Pacific White-Sided Dolphins. They were feeding on anchovies alongside seabirds and hundreds of California Sea Lions, and we managed awesome looks as the animals moved from bait ball to bait ball. The entire time we were out here, we were surrounded by animals and got absolutely incredible looks at everything!
We got back in a little late (also quickly stopping for an elephant seal), but we were all happy with the show that we found out there. No afternoon trip for us today, so looking forward to getting out there tomorrow!
Naturalist Pete
