The researchers were absolutely awestricken by the sight of the super pod of Risso’s dolphins. Photo: Facebook//Screenshot
An enormous pod of dolphins, some 1,500 strong, was spotted just off California’s central coast in Carmel Bay.
“They were on the horizon I feel like as far as I could see,” said the Monterey Bay Whale Watch‘s Capt Evan Brodsky, who captured the footage on Friday.
Risso’s dolphins, the type seen in the super pod, generally travel in pods of 10 to 30 individuals. This one, however, stood out due to the sheer size of it. Brodsky, who was traveling in a 20-foot inflatable boat with a team looking for grey whales, says they were awe-stricken by the sight of so many dolphins. Some were bow-riding off the tiny craft the researchers were in.
“They were just having a great time,” remembered Colleen Talty, a marine biologist who was aboard the small vessel. “So they were breaching everywhere … tail slapping, coming right over to the boat. They looked like they were having a big party.”
According to Talty, the pod was made up of a young and old dolphins. It was probably several pods, all swimming together, instead of one large one. And while it’s not totally unheard of for dolphins to group together in such numbers, it certainly is rare — and anyone who witnessed it in person will likely remember it for the rest of their lives.
The team did not initially grasp the 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 on 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.”
