12.5.20 Weekly Wrap Up

In the last week of whale watching aboard the Legacy, we had one of our best trips of the year!

Last Saturday afternoon we set out to the west-northwest in search of something we had not seen all year. Reports had come in that two Humpback Whales were offshore, roughly 14 nautical miles from the harbor. In a 3 hour trip, we knew we had to go straight there, or risk losing the whales. We set our direction and prayed the whales would stick around long enough.

Our luck held out. As we arrived on the scene, we saw huge splashes that were frequent and close together. Upon approaching closer, we witnessed two humpback whales breaching, tail slapping, corkscrewing (rolling over), and spraying water.

The two whales’ names were Twitch and Flicka. Humpback whales can be identified by the black and white pattern on the underside of their tail fins. This pattern is similar to the finger prints on a human being, each pattern being unique to each individual.

Twitch and Flicka are two well-known whales in Southern California. Flicka (shown above) is a male and Twitch is a female. The two are inseparable. We may have been witnessing mating behavior, based on the amount and frequency of tail slapping we were seeing. Regardless, these whales were definitely having a grand old time.

Seeing these huge animals (max 55 feet in length and 66,000 pounds in weight) breaching gives a better idea of their true size. Seeing these two individuals breach repeatedly for an hour was awesome!

Above, Flicka shows off how big he really is by throwing a ton of spray with his tail. All in all, the trip was unlike any we have had this year.

Hundreds of Common Dolphins were also in the mix, popping up all around the whales. Many of our marine mammals like to socialize with and around other marine mammals. To see our acrobatic, dolphin friends was the icing on top of an already incredible trip.

We never know what whale watching will bring. There is always the possibility of something special like last Saturday. We are excited to see what the next week will bring.

As always, you can book your trip here on our website or by calling us at 619-309-1680.
We hope to see you soon!