Monday March 12th brought us a beautiful morning trip before the next wave of weather and atmospheric rivers sent rain and winds into Monterey Bay. The Pacifica was filled with eager passengers awaiting whales and visiting the bay all over the world; whether it was Germany or Tennessee. Pacific white sided dolphins were spotted just before we came upon a small group of three Gray whales en route for their migration from Baja, Mexico up to their feeding grounds in the Arctic Ocean. It quickly became clear that this encounter was more than our everyday Gray whale sighting – these whales were rolling around with each other and giving our boat the show of the winter! The pod of Pacific White Sided dolphins grew in size, and we were even joined by the more rarely seen Northern Right Whale dolphin, a spectacular and sleek specimen to spice up the already stupendous morning. We spent the majority of our morning with this group of whales and dolphins, and Captain Isaiah even passed on to the guests that this was one of the top five Gray whale encounters he’s had in his 11 years on the water here in Monterey. No waves of vertigo brought on by the building swell phased the wonderful group we had on the boat, and smiles were abundant as we headed past the Southern sea otters and California sea lions welcoming us back to the harbor.
-Naturalist Sophie
