Get Ready For Some Serious Acrobatics
Bottlenose dolphins leaping through the air Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
James S.
Friday, August 30, 2019
The past couple weeks have seen some amazing acrobatics and high flying dolphins playing within the wake of the whale watch boats. As the blue whale season slows down our captains have been very vigilant searching for sea life and providing amazing experiences for our guests. The dolphins have been very playful, even the Risso’s dolphins were getting playful with the boat.
One of the amazing things spotted in the past couple of weeks was a group of red footed booby birds and also a masked booby bird. They red footed boobies are the smallest of the booby bird species and very rarely seen in the mainland United States, sometimes spotted right here in California or Florida. The only area of the United States that regularly sees the red footed booby is Hawaii, and there are a number of areas they will nest and hatch their eggs along the islands. Unlike a lot of birds, the red footed booby doesn’t migrate and typically stays within tropical and subtropical regions. Which is why we were so fortunate to see one, our own naturalist Maura was able to confirm the sighting with bird experts she was in contact with.
As the summer season of blue whales starts to come to a close, we wanted to reflect back on the sightings we’ve had. Looking over our data we have had almost a 50% increase in sightings over the whole summer as compared to last year. The summers following the 2014-2016 El Nino shifted our expectations and dramatically changed our sighting numbers. We’re all very excited that the numbers have come up this year, helping to create long-lasting memories with our guests on the boats.
If you haven’t had a chance to get on whale watch then come on down to Long Beach. Every day is a new adventure and we never know what amazing or rare species we may encounter. Purchase your combo ticket for a trip to the Aquarium and Harbor Breeze Cruises, explore over 11,000 animals on exhibit before or after you explore our coastal ocean. Boats board every day at 12:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
See you on the water!
Bottlenose dolphin leaping in the air Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Great blue heron in rainbow harbor Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Common dolphins playing and porpoising at the surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Risso's dolphin along the surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Potential Risso's dolphin cow/calf pair Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Bottlenose breaching in the boat wake Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Rare sighting of a masked booby bird Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Patches the leucistic bottlenose dolphin Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale fluke Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Large group of common dolphins at the surface all at once Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Blue whale at the surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Common dolphin cow/calf pair Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Bottlenose dolphins leaping from the boat wake Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Common dolphins, potential cow/calf pair at the surface Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific
Common dolphin porpoising out of the water Credit: Aquarium of the Pacific