On the beautiful day of August 28th just several miles off the coast under the sunny skies of Los Angeles, we knew today would be a good day. What we didn’t know is that today would be one of the best days for whale watching that Los Angeles has seen in a while.
As we cruised further out into the smooth waters of the pacific ocean we hadn’t spotted much, except for a small pod of dolphins feeding on the large schools of fish that rested just below our vessel. This pod was 6-7 dolphins at most but the playful antics and curiosity of the young calves in this pod set the tone for what was in store for cruise-goers on this lovely day.
A couple of miles past our first cetacean sighting, Captain Dan who was operating the Triumphant made the discovery of a lifetime. Just beneath the smooth coastal waters, our captain spotted several whales spouts toward the bow of the boat. We had just encountered what we thought was a small pod of blue whales, likely a mother and two young calves, but boy were we wrong. As we admired the beauty of the blue whales we spotted, more spouts began to break the water’s surface. Suddenly we realized that we were not among a small pod of blue whales and that the entire vessel was surrounded by blue whales. As this spectacular whale sighting developed in front of our eyes, we counted at least 10 different giant blue whales with 3-4 more sightings a couple of yards further from the boat.
We’ve been experiencing a large volume of whale sightings at Harbor Breeze since ramping operations back up, but this sighting was like none other and definitely broke the record books. Good weather, sunny skies, and calm seas are plentiful in southern California, and this sighting shows there’s a lot more whale watching to do this year. Join us for a whale watching cruise in Los Angeles to catch a glimpse of another record-breaking whale sighting.