It's the Daily Dolphin Show

Dolphins can be seen in the Monterey Bay throughout the year, but as spring turns to summer the dolphins move close to shore and put on daily shows for the regulars at the beach below my house. Sometimes you can see the birds feeding off bait balls offshore and I recognize the dolphins in the middle. Recently, surf or no surf, they have been doing acrobatics close to shore. This includes bodysufing the swells, and when there is little surf, they seem to create their own fun, jumping out of the water and riding the small waves approaching shore in a more lateral high speed type of surfing.

The other morning a surf school was out at the "Platform" in Rio Del Mar and the surfers were surrounded with dolphins inside and outside of them. People on the beach were cheering and the surf students were pointing excitedly. I feel like it's my first time seeing them every day.

Yesterday I went down to the beach with my daughter and they were there again. Not moving in an upcoast or downcoast pattern, but just randomly cruising. Clare swam outside quickly and was fairly close. She dove underwater and was able to hear the high pitched noises they make to one another including a guttural click for lack of a better description.

I'm calling them dolphins, but there are many types of dolphins and porpoises in the Monterey Bay. Here's a good general description Chris's Whale Watching Tours of Monterey:

The Pacific White-sided dolphins are absolutely the most Aerial of all the species jumping and flipping head over tail spins in the air when they are really worked up!   The Common dolphins, there here are 2 kinds, short and long beak.  They tend to be the most social with our tour boats. These dolphins are often very very "friendly" or "touchy feely" amongst themselves allowing us to even see frequent mating behaviors. They did not get their names common because they are average by any means, they have beautiful color patterns, and exciting behavior displays. They have this name because they are one of the more commonly seen dolphins in the worlds oceans.   Northern Rightwhale dolphins are definitely the most sleek and silky smooth looking dolphins as they rise up and out of the water shooting like bullets because they do not have a dorsal fin on their back. They are really elegant looking and when you see them fly out of the water you are left with a feeling of awe.  Their color markings are shinny ebony black with a debonair white streak going down their bellies and have a very pointed head.   The big heavy round robust Rissos dolphin's can weigh up to two thousand lbs. and get to be a length of thirteen and a half feet long. Their body color and markings make them very unique because they are born a cocoa color brown and get lighter and lighter as they age while acquiring increasingly more scratches and scars on their bodies. The oldest animals can look almost pure white and the dorsal fin on their backs will often be tattered, torn, and have whole chunks bitten out of them. All the dolphins in the Monterey Bay are extremely social animals with complex social systems, hierarchies, and have family units, however, the scratches on them prove that they also fight pretty hard. The scars on the dolphins match their own mouths so don't think for a minute that these beautiful highly intelligent creatures are only sweet docile animals because they can really do some biting when they get mad at each other. Our local coastal Bottlenose dolphins are just that. The population is small and utilizes habitats very near shore and in the surf line. They meander in small groups of 2 to 12 on average fishing and "perdinking" (technical term) around with the surfers on many occasions. This means for our trips we are really only going to be in their potential area as we are heading out or returning at the end of the trips. So don't forget to start looking as soon as the trip begins.  Back to Top

Killer Whales or Orca's are actually the largest dolphin in the dolphin family. They received the name killer whales because some very specific genetic groups, called transients, are known to kill whales. So the name was shortened from Killer of whales to Killer Whales. They are also called Orca's and it is fun to know that killer whales all over the world are very different and hunt different Prey. In the Monterey Bay we are able to watch two types of Killer whales: Transients, marine mammal and bird predators; and Open Ocean Killer whales, who are fish and shark eaters. There is nothing like the excitement and adrenaline that flows when hanging out with Killer whales weather they are traveling, hunting or doing social displays.  They are here year round but sightings are unpredictable. We see the "Transient" types the most and this leads to opportunities of watching them hunt their favorite prey such as seals, sea lions, dolphins, and even the big whales. Viewing an actual successful hunt is like finding a golden treasure but it does happen. We might see some of their hunting strategies such as "Body Slamming" or "Pouncing" like a cat on a mouse.  Once the kill is over we are often treated to a wonderful social display put on by the Killer whales. They can get very excitable and begin to Spy Hop, Tail Slap, and leap about slamming their body's on the surface.    Back to Top

We have two species of porpoises common to the Monterey Bay.      The first one is the Harbor PorpoiseMonterey Bay.  We do get looks at them when we are over the shallower shelf but they are usually in small groups of 3 to 10 that will show you several surfacing's but tend to scamper away after a short period of time. If you are an attentive observer on a calm day and they are around you can get a few good looks at them. The Dall's Porpoise is the second species of porpoise in Monterey Bay and they are one of the few pelagic (open ocean) porpoises in the world. These robust porpoises can also be a rolling ball of "spitfire" when they get to zipping around. The Dall's porpoise are one of the fastest most maneuverable cetaceans in the entire world.  At times it seems they show this off by whirling in almost every direction at once weaving an invisible tapestry on the oceans surface. They can be very social with the boats and may dart over to take a ride off the bow of the boat or on the wakes created by our boat.

Finally, this last video is not the Monterey Bay. It is a 2003 BBC Video about "Dolphins: Deep Thinkers" and much of the film is from Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa.  It is well worth watching: