{"id":1461,"date":"2011-11-21T11:53:15","date_gmt":"2011-11-21T19:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/21\/video-of-rare-sei-whales-off-dana-point\/"},"modified":"2011-11-21T11:58:07","modified_gmt":"2011-11-21T19:58:07","slug":"video-of-rare-sei-whales-off-dana-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artesianmedia.com\/blog\/video-of-rare-sei-whales-off-dana-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Video of Rare Sei Whales Off Dana Point"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve lived in the LA area for more than 20 years now (gulp!), and this is the first time I’ve ever actually gone out on a whale-watching cruise. The impetus for this trip was a visit from my Tennessee-based sister, who wanted to go out on the water. Since it’s November, and actually going out to the beach would involve parkas & scarves rather than bikinis, I figured this would be a nice compromise.<\/p>\n

It turns out that it was a very unusual experience – we saw two species of cetaceans that are quite rare – especially as close to shore as we found them.<\/p>\n

First, there were the Risso’s Dolphins – big honkin’ beasts. Seriously. I’ve swum with the familiar bottlenose dolphins, and been intimidated by the sheer strength of a 500-lb critter that is made out of pure muscle & gristle. Touching a dolphin while you’re swimming is a lot like putting your hand on the hood of an idling 18-wheeler.<\/p>\n

\"Risso<\/a>

A pod of Risso's Dolphins - these guys look like mini-whales. They're white and gray, rather than the familiar battleship gray of their bottlenose kin, and much thicker around.<\/p><\/div>\n

You just get this deep, thrumming sense of power.<\/p>\n

Next, just as we were about to go in (and about time, too, as most of the passengers were starting to turn a little blue), we heard the long, extended “PFFFFFFttttttt!” of a whale breaching about 100 yards away. Turns out it was a couple of Sei Whales (pronounced “Say Whales,” although I kinda like thinking it’s French “C’est Whales”) who were in about 60-80 feet of water. Which is unusual, because if a whale this size actually stood on its head, it could wave it’s flipper out of the water, like a little kid in the shallow end of the pool.<\/p>\n