A few days of large swells and high winds kept the Discovery Whale Watch crew off the water but upon our return today the animals were still there! Capt. Danny spotted one of my favorite cetaceans (big old science word for animals with a blowhole) before we left the harbor, Coastal Bottlenose Dolphins! A small pod of these energetic dolphins hunted for fish near a kayaker right in front of our harbor mouth. It didn’t take us too long to see a bigger relative of our dolphins just a few miles away, Humpback whales! Capt. Rod who was out fishing today was kind enough to let us know he spotted a humpback whale near him. We gave the whale Capt. Rod handed off to us a visit and then moved on to a pair of whales I spotted a short distance away. The pair of whales turned out to be a mom and baby humpback whale, what we call a cow/calf pair. The calf was huge (approx. 30 FT.) and lifted its head out of the water a few times, showing its baleen and tubercles off to our guest. We also got a few close passes by the great showing pair and eventually a single breach by the calf. A little later into our trip Capt. Danny found a small pod of Risso’s Dolphin that showed really well even though their numbers were small. A few of the Risso’s even decided to bow ride for a few seconds which is a rare occurrence for this species.
Naturalist Eric Austin Yee
A humpback whale mother and calf diving. 11-9-2020
