9:00am: We started off the morning with news that Wally, the humpback whale whose presence we enjoyed so much last summer, and who recently washed up dead in Manhattan Beach, had floated to the waters off Newport! Capt Ryan took our passengers for a look at this deceased whale, which exhibited many shark bites from previous days as it floated down from LA. We then went looking for some LIVE marine mammals, and we found two great pods of common dolphin. Alas, no breathing whales were found this trip.
11:30am: Eager to look at a new area that could be holding whales, we took the Zodiacs up towards the offshore Oil Rigs, 10 miles from Newport! On the way out, we also stopped by Wally’s carcass again. One of our passengers had been with us last summer and actually got to see Wally in a happier circumstance when we watched him last summer. We pushed on toward the rigs, and found a good pod of dolphin. Then Capt Ryan found a spout in the distance. Another few miles and we had a great blue whale encounter! We were the only boat in Orange County to see a whale today.
3:00pm: For our last trip, we started right off the bat with a great pod of 30 common dolphin outside the harbor. Hoping to continue our blue whale streak, we headed right to the place where we left the blue whale just two hours prior. Unfortunately the whale moved on. We got to see a few more pods of dolphins on the way in.