An interesting few days, as both Thursday and Friday boasted similar morning-only trips (afternoons cancelled by continued Northwesterly winds). Both saw roughly 15 humpbacks, whereas the former additionally saw 80 Risso’s Dolphin. Solid trips, good and hardy passengers, and no small supply of sea shanties 🙂 Today’s weather was merciful enough to allow for two trips(!). Seizing the weather window, we ventured out west, and were treated to at least 30 hunpback whales here and there, leap frogging between group of 2 to 4. Further to the southwest, we encountered a massive pod of dolphin, some 2,000 in all, mixed with Risso’s, Pacific White Sided, and Northern Right Whale Dolphin, and at one point a group of three humpbacks entered the fray, rolling around and interacting with their smaller cetacean cousins. Sadly enough, we had a schedule to keep, so we ran home and swapped passengers for an afternoon cruise. Back out west, we found a small pod of Risso’s, and then spent some time looking for the megapod until settling on a few humpbacks. Just as we settled on another, lone humpback, we sighted the megapod to the west, but also noticed that our humpback had two buoys trailing behind it. Tragically, he or she was entangled around the tail. Extensive phone conversations with Monterey’s disentanglement team concluded that the whale would be assisted soon, and we hope to look forward to good news on the morrow.
-Naturalist Isaiah
