| Date | Season | Whale Sightings | Dolphin Sightings | Other Species |
| 9/29/2025 | Summer | 2 Humpback Whales | ~500 Long-beaked common dolphins, ~50 offshore bottlenose dolphins | California Brown Pelicans, Elegant Terns, Black-vented Shearwaters |
Today’s trip aboard The Peregrine felt like stepping into a live episode of National Geographic, with the ocean bursting with activity from start to finish. Dolphins in Feeding Mode We first encountered about 50 Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins, including plenty of calves sticking close to their mothers. Soon after, we came across a massive group of around 500 Long-Beaked Common Dolphins, all engaged in incredible feeding behavior. Guests watched as dolphins swam belly-up, right at the surface, chasing anchovies with precision and agility. Humpbacks Near the Border Adding to the excitement, we spotted two humpback whales farther south, near the Mexican border. We’ve been seeing this pair over the past few days, and their tail flukes make them easy to recognize: • One has a tail with a lot of white on the underside, lifting it multiple times today. • The other has mostly gray flukes with just a few speckles of white near the tips. At one point, the two whales condensed together, and one erupted in lunge feeding at the surface, sending water flying as it devoured anchovies. Birds, Bait Balls & Ocean Energy All around us, bait balls churned the surface while thousands of seabirds — Elegant Terns and Western Gulls — dove and circled overhead. The ocean felt alive in every direction, with predators above and below the surface working together in a spectacular feeding frenzy. A Day to Remember From dolphins belly-up feeding to humpbacks lunge-feeding and birds filling the sky, today reminded us of the raw, interconnected energy of the ocean.
Naturalist,
Melissa