Hello whalewatchers,
We started our trip with some great sightings before we got to our first destination of Islas Todos Santos. I hope this an omen for things to come on this trip! We saw our first whale right after leaving our Mexican clearance in Ensenada, and it was a blue whale! I don’t recall seeing blue whales this far north at this time of the year. After a while we lost track of the blue whale as the conditions were very gray with the early light and overcast. We saw another whale and thought it might be the blue whale, but it was a fin whale and so we spent time with the fin. We had great looks at both whales and that was before 8 am.
We travelled to Islas Todos Santos and saw some pinnepeds: northern elephant seals and harbor seals. There were also oystercatchers and nesting brown pelicans .
We left there and started south. We soon came across a group of Risso’s dolphins and had great looks at them. Travelling a little further south, we saw another smaller group of Risso’s.
The highlight of the afternoon was an area of surface feeding fin whales. One group of five whales in particular stayed at the surface for a long time and we had them close to the boat. They were feeding on the big balls of krill. There were hundreds of Cassin’s auklets in the area too. We had to break off and continue south to keep to our schedule.
We did see a small group of short-beaked common dolphin, a red-billed tropic bird and a laysan albatross in the distance.
What a remarkable day for our first day! Looking forward to tomorrow at Islas San Benito.
Capt Art
