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, as Risso’s dolphins typically travel in groups of only 10 to 30 animals, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
Photo: Evan Brodsky, Monterey Bay Whale Watch via AP
From an about 6m-long 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 499kg and reach up to 3.9m 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 were even swimming at the front of the vessel and using the waves to propel them forward, a technique known as bow riding, she said.
Photo: Evan Brodsky, Monterey Bay Whale Watch via AP
“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 have seen this large of a group, it is 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, Talty said.
The team did not initially grasp the sheer size of the super pod that appeared on 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,’” Brodsky said. “It just blows my mind every time. It never gets old.”
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