Thursday October 16, 2012: Today was one for the record books. Captain Steve put it into perspective as we finished our tour today when he said, Ive been out here for 20 years and never seen anything like this. We saw over 200 short finned pilot whales today! Captain Steve set the course straight out of the jetties today to go the distance. We have had luck recently further out to sea, so we made the decision to get out there and see what we could see. On our way out we interacted with about 30 common dolphins, a few dozen flying fish, and a hammerhead shark...already a great trip. We spotted something new in the distance and Captain Steve and I had a hard time figuring it out. After closer inspection, we realized we were approaching a large pod of short finned pilot whales! This is a rare sighting here off the coast of San Diego as these are a more tropical species, usually found off of the Baja peninsula. We stayed as long as we could with the whales; they were checking us out as much as we were them. We saw a few cow/calf pairs in the pod as well. There were lots of close interactions with the boat. As we informed everyone on board that we had to turn back because we were running out of time, one of the calves decided to spy hop, granting me the first photo you see. On our way home we observed even more common dolphins...and a sea turtle! What a diverse and rare day today aboard the Privateer! Jeremy, Naturalist
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 01:00:30 +0000
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