Looks like the weather will settle down again this week though. I can’t wait to get out on the water again.

We have been seeing large groups of northbound Gray Whales, sometimes as many as 8 in a group, lots of Common Dolphins and beautiful Risso’s Dolphins almost every trip. We have also had the occaisional sighting of Humpback whales and Fin whales. All in all, it is a wonderful time to be whale watching from San Diego!

Here are a bunch of my photos from the last couple of weeks:

We are seeing some northbound, as well as southbound, Gray Whales now.  The really interesting change in the area though is that more and more we are seeing Fin Whales, Risso’s Dolphins, and even Humpback Whales offshore. We have had some unbelievably amazing whale watching trips.

I knew it was going to be good when we encountered about 20 Pacific White Sided Dolphins and then 3 Gray Whales right out of San Diego Bay.

Then it got even better when we found two more whales on our way down to the Coronado Islands. While we were watching these two, a few dolphins decided to come over and have a little fun with them. Soon the whales were rolling over on their sides and popping their heads above the water, obviously interacting with the dolphins. Way cool!!!

After a week of wet and windy weather, which kept us off the water, this week is sure turning out to be pretty wonderful.

We took a quick look at a lone Gray Whale just off of Point Loma and then headed down towards the Coronado Islands. Lots of Common Dolphins along the way, and then 6 Gray Whales around the north island. We topped off the day with a beautiful look at a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins.

The last two days on the water have been some of the most beautiful we have had this season! Both days we found a group of about 30 Risso’s Dolphins and lots of Gray Whales.

This morning we found Gray Whales just about everywhere we looked and the Coronado Islands were full of Sea Lions, Pelicans, and Cormorants. The really cool part about this morning’s trip though, was finding a small pod of Risso’s Dolphins! This was only our second sighting of the season of these strange but beautiful animals.

This afternoon the wind picked up a bit more than forecasted and the water got fairly rough. We still had a great time with Pacific White Sided Dolphins and we found a pair of gorgeous Gray Whales down in the islands. To our astonishment one of them did a full breach, twice!! Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera up in time, but It will always be ingrained in my memory. That made the trip worth it for sure!

This morning we headed out into beautiful calm waters, although you could feel the approaching storm in the air and see the first indications of dark clouds offshore.

This created almost perfect conditions for spotting. And spot we did. We found a total of almost 12 Gray Whales. It seemed that everywhere we went there they were. We also had an amazing encounter with a pod of Pacific White Sided Dolphins and California Sea Lions (see video).

This morning we encountered a total of about 5-6 Gray Whales, with one passing quite close to us, giving us a beautiful look at its fluke as it went down for a deep dive. Then this afternoon we found 7 Gray Whales hanging out just off the tip of the north Coronado Island. What a beautiful sight!

Oh, and don’t forget the dolphins and sea lions. On both trips we had some fantastic interactions with playful Pacific White Sided dolphins and California Sea Lions.

We had a beautiful large ocean swell rolling in from the Northwest this afternoon as we left San Diego on another sunny morning. You really knew that you were on the ocean today.

After a bit of searching up and down the kelp beds I got a report from another whale watching boat that a group of Risso’s Dolphins had been spotted. It was out of our way, but I just couldn’t resist. This was the first sighting of Risso’s this season. It was definitely worth the extra distance! We had a wonderful encounter with about 15-20 of them. One of them breached almost 10 times!

Then we ran south to the North Coronado Island to check out Pelicans, Sea Lions, and to watch the swells crashing against the rocks.

On the way back north we were fortunate enough to spend some time with a group of 3 Gray Whales. Lots of flukes, as they traveled closely together. While we were waiting for the Grays to come up from a long dive we had another surprise today. A Minke Whale popped up right in front of us and gave us several great looks before we moved on with the Gray Whales again.

Another great whale watching tour. The run back home was all smiles!

Right out of the harbor we were able to observe something that is truly special. A brand new baby Gray Whale traveling with its mother. The baby was so new that it still had fetal folds on its rostrum (see photo of the baby next to its mother). Usually the whales will calve down in Baja California, however, sometimes they don’t quite make it.

After leaving the beautiful pair of whales to their journey southward we headed out to find about 100 Common Dolphins feeding offshore. Soon they were darting all around the boat and playing in our wake.

What a great trip so far. How much better could it get? Well, I decided to go exploring a little bit to find out. This is one of the nice things about running the Western Explorer, we have about a 30 mile range (one way) and I like to use it. So, we ran south about 12 miles to a spot where I have been very lucky in the last couple of weeks.

As we approached the area I spotted a large blow in the distance. YES! Soon I realized that it was the same Humpback Whale from two days ago. We watched it for about 20 minutes as it cruised along with the occasional longer dive. Then after a very long dive (10 minutes) we were getting ready to leave when we spotted its flukes again. So we decided to get one more look. And look we did as the next surfacing was a full breach with a 180 degree twist!!! And then another, and then huge lunges with streams of krill (see photo), which it must have been feeding on,  coming from both sides of its mouth. Obviously, this was a happy whales!

Another unbelievable day!