Capt. Dave's Ocean Report

As seen weekly in the
Dana Point News/O.C. Register
June 2, 2005

Well it was a bottlenose kind of week.

We saw common dolphin, too. Of course we had a pod of about 500 plus commons that were seen several times throughout the week, with one unusual event occurring. One day this pod of commons was seen with a small pod of pacific whitesided and a pod of about twenty offshore bottlenose. Three completely different species of dolphin were all feeding together in the same spot – this is very unusual. It’s not unusual to see rissos dolphin and bottlenose together feeding but never with the whitesided and commons too.

This photo is an offshore bottlenose jumping. You may notice all
the scarring that was most likely done
by other bottlenose dolphins. They rake each other with their teeth- some of it is playful, some of it fighting, some during courtship. Dolphins mate belly to belly
but sometimes bite each other beforehand – love bites. Bottlenose are the most aggressive dolphins we see on a regular basis and, interestingly, they are also the most playful.

We are starting to see Mola molas regularly again. These large ocean
sunfish look like a giant fish head lying on its side. They also look just
like a plastic bag floating in the water from a distance. We have to watch
out for them. I was reluctant to share this with you, but last week I felt
a thud and my passengers on the starboard bow were all excited about something that had just passed under
the boat. They thought it was
a shark but I knew better. We
turned the boat around to see
how the Mola we had accidentally
run over was doing. The tough-as-
nails slimy fish seemed absolutely
normal; lying on its side looking
like it was dead (it swam away
when we got near). I have seen
gulls literally peck holes in these
fish and they will just lie there and
take it (the birds peck parasites off
them) - so I’m sure he was ok. These
fish are the only living thing we have
ever struck out on the water, although
we have had a few close encounters
with the brown pelicans – they are not
the brightest birds on the block. Nearly every day dolphins come over to us, swimming within inches of us, all around us, and under us, without us ever harming a one – thankfully.

Well, that’s it till next week. God bless. This is Capt. Dave, over and out.

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Capt. Dave Anderson runs Capt. Dave’s Dolphin Safari out of Dana Point
Harbor. He recently completed the award winning documentary film “Wild Dolphins and Whales of Southern California.” Capt. Dave will be sharing
his photos and stories and letting us know what he and other skippers
are seeing off the Orange County coast. For a daily log of sightings see www.dolphinsafari.com.

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