A miles-long cluster of dolphins has been filmed leaping and gliding across Carmel Bay off the central coast of California, forming an unusual “super pod” of more than 1,500 of the marine creatures.
“They were on the horizon I feel like as far as I could see,” said Captain Evan Brodsky, with the Monterey Bay Whale Watch, who captured drone footage of Friday’s huge gathering of Risso’s dolphins.
The sighting was rare: Risso’s dolphins typically travel in groups of only 10 to 30 animals, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
From a 20-foot (about 6-meter) inflatable boat, Brodsky and a small team out searching for Gray whales watched mesmerized as the dolphins jumped out of the bay, peeking around as they leaped in the air. This type of dolphin with its stocky body and bulbous head can weigh as much as 1,100 pounds (about 499 kilograms) and reach up to 13 feet (3.9 meters) long.
Colleen Talty, a marine biologist on the trip to track the annual migration of Gray whales headed to breeding lagoons off Mexico’s Baja California coast, called it “pretty amazing” to see more than 1,500 dolphins cavorting all around their boat.
Some, she said, were even swimming at the front of the vessel and using the waves to propel them forward, a technique known as bow riding.
“They were just having a great time. So they were breaching everywhere … tail slapping, coming right over to the boat. They looked like they were having a big party,” she said.
The large mix of adult and juvenile dolphins was likely the result of several pods coming together and swimming south, she said.
Although this is not the first time they’ve seen this large of a group, it’s not a common occurrence, Talty said.
The Monterey coastline is a particularly ideal location to spot the dolphins because they prefer extremely deep water. The area’s underwater submarine canyon means they may swim much closer to shore than elsewhere along the California coast, said Talty.
The team didn’t initially grasp the sheer size of the super pod that appeared Friday morning, thinking there were only several hundred dolphins.
“Once we put the drone up, I was just blown away … I kept saying, ‘Look at my screen. Look at my screen. Look how many there are,’” said Brodsky. “It just blows my mind every time. It never gets old.”
Talty described one particularly memorable moment Friday in which she stood at the front of the boat and looked down to see several dolphins turning on their sides and staring straight back at her.
As the dolphins continued to interact with the boat, the team drove straight ahead, making sure to stay out of their way.
“You don’t want to make any abrasive maneuvers and potentially injure an animal. That’s of course the last thing you ever want to do,” Brodsky said. “So we just cruise along with them. It was an incredible experience.”
