12th cetacean (whale/dolphin) added to current trip list!
They are currently enjoying Risso’s dolphins this morning, and that adds up to 12 species of cetaceans in one trip! Let’s see if they can add another this afternoon for a baker’s dozen.
Tour #1 Bahia Agua Verde and a whaley day
Dear whalewatchers; Another fantastic day today! We had a great walk at Bahia Agua Verde after a calm night on the anchor there. Lots of different birds to look at with the highlight being a vermillion flycatcher. After leaving the bay we came across another species of balleen whale–a minke. We just keep adding to the cetacean list each day. We travelled for awhile and came upon another big blue whale for a few looks and decided to get back down to the area where we were two days ago. we were rewarded by multiple sperm whales on the surface. No telling how many but there were quite a few. The crew did a great job again spotting these whales from along way away. We bypassed a breaching humpback and a group of pilot whales to get close to the sperm whales while they were on the surface. We stayed with these whales for at least 2 hours. It was awesome!
The crew saw more spouts further south in the San Jose channel and so we went towards them and we came across a group of five sperm whales on the surface we stayed until they dove and saw three flukes at once. Could it get any better? Not sure how.
Our last sighting has been a humpback feeding with a few bottlenose dolphin joining in.
What an incredible day. We are finishing it off with margaritas and a buffet on the back deck. Party time! Team Searcher
Tour #1 Isla Santa Catalina
Hello whalewatchers: What a great day! The island was great! The weather is fantastic! We left the island and the first whale we saw was sperm whale. It was a single male that was on the surface for a long time. We waited for it to resurface and unfortunately we had to wait for 50 minutes and then we had to travel 3 miles to get close to the area. The whale was down again for another 50 minutes and we only had to travel 2 miles to get close and I think everyone got a view in the binoculars or the telephoto lens. We elected to continue on and see what the rest of the afternoon would bring. We found lots of bird life with dolphins and a couple of small humpbacks. We were close to Isla Monserate in the area that we traditionally see lots of life.
One humpback lunged through the bait ball with the pelicans, boobies, gulls and dolphins were feeding on. Quite a sight!
Today’s picture is from the island–the famous (practically) endemic yellow-footed gull.
Team Searcher
