A full day is a good thing for lots of good reasons, and it is better still if it is full of whales. Our four sightings of Gray whales included a whale that we saw blow at Campus Point in the early morning glare. Then we could not find the whale. It never emerged from the glare. We found out the reason an hour later when the Captain of the Condor Express called from way east of Counter Point to tell us that he had just come upon a southbound Gray whale. Mystery solved.

Our second Gray whale sighting did not appear until 2:30 when we saw big blows just past us. How could we not have seen them earlier: big blows with regular surfacings? We did not solve that mystery. Instead we tracked them well past the oil platform and added the trio to the board.

Sighting three, at quarter past three, was a Cow/calf pair that spent a good deal of time rolling in the kelp west of Campus Point. They brought smiles back to our faces.

Our final sighting was a single that dodged our eyes past Counter Point into the afternoon glare. There was not much mystery here. It was simply hard to track a whale through the chop, whitecaps, and glare.

While we did not have many whale sightings, we had lots and lots of dolphins sightings that included all three of our regulars: Lags, Bottlenose, and Common dolphins. We also saw a large gathering of about sixty California Sea lions that looked like a line of bouncing dolphins.

Unfortunately, we also saw and reported to the the Marine Mammal Center two Sea lions on the sand in front of us. The first struggled back into the ocean with a cut on its back, perhaps caused by an encounter with the rock it had used for sanctuary.

In the late afternoon, a second, smaller Sea lion could only manage getting as far as drier sand. The good news is that Peter Howorth arrived and, with the help of a Counter, they brought the very-much-in-need pinniped up from the beach to the rescue van.

All marine-mammal care givers are vastly overtaxed this year. Please continue to call about animals that need to be rescued, and please be generous in your support of their work.

Gray whales northbound (all) 6 | Calves 1 — 2015 Count 974 | 031

Hours 8:00