Whale watching in San Diego

It's possible to see whales most times of the year near San Diego IF (a big IF) you have a boat with an experienced captain and crew. If you pay to go on a whale watching tour and don't see a whale on any given day, you'll get an invitation to return for a greatly reduced (or free) price. It's usually a nice day out anyway! [click any image to enlarge]

(Note that in this blog I am excluding all "whale in captivity" options such as Sea World. No offense to them, but it's not the same as seeing a whale in the ocean".

We have gone out exploring with the Adventure from Hornblower, the largest and fastest local ship.

 San Diego Whale Watch's Privateer - a whale watching vessel from New England which holds 149

the Eclipse from  Pacific Nature Tours which seats 49

and the catamaran Manute'a from Capt Dave's Dolphin & Whale Safaris, also holding 49

We haven't been on the Flagship's Marietta but they provide trips too.

What we haven't is go out on our own with a lunatic captain that risks himself, his passengers' safety, and the whales. This guy was only 20-30 feet from the 70-foot-long whale when our captain hailed him and warned him off. By agreement we (in a vessel) are to remain 100 yards from the whale, but whales are allowed to come to us.

We've seen whales from land, in San Diego and San Pedro, and we've visited museums. This is at Pt. Vicente, a whale spotting site in Los Angeles.

Whereas this is in San Diego at the old Point Loma Lighthouse National Monument.

And I think we have always seen dolphins. Every single time.

and seagulls, of course.

and always Navy vessels.

In search of the great whales

Greetings, marine mammal fans!

I'll be your captain today as we set off on a voyage of discovery near San Diego.

We'll see plenty of small toothed whales (aka "Dolphins")

Some balleen whales

Pinnepeds (aka sea lions)

Pelecanus Occidentalis (brown pelicans)

and often we see other strange "marine" intruders as well.

Like this weird black sea nettle jellyfish,
the largest invertebrate discovered in the 20th century. It was only classified in 1997!

and these Marines from Camp Pendleton!

Ready? Let's Go! There's plenty of room for you right up at the front ...