Last Saturday, Hornblower Cruises & Events in San Diego began a new season of whalewatching cruises! So far we've spotted the first migrating Eastern Pacific Gray Whales off the coast of San Diego. Most of the grays are traveling south to the Calving Lagoons in Baja California, Mexico. One young Gray Whale seemed to be turned around and headed north, which is very unusual for this time of year. The…
Splash Sale! For a limited time, Hornblower's Whale & Dolphin Watching Adventure Cruise Tickets are only $30 per person for Monday through Friday cruises (a savings of $15 per person)! Call (619) 686-8715 to reserve. Our Whale Watching Season featuring migrating Gray Whales lasts through April 19, 2020. Must purchase a specific cruise date with this offer. Offer not valid with any other discounts. See our Current Sightings Report.
Orca alert! Last Saturday, our Captain, Whalers(naturalists) from the San Diego Natural History Museum, and on board guests were thrilled to spot three Killer Whales (orcas) off the San Diego coast during our Whale & Dolphin Watching Cruise. Orcas are rarely seen off of Southern California. This is the first time we've seen killer whales since January of 2017. The trio of whales included two adult females and an adult…
Yesterday, admist another incredible day of Whale and Dolphin Watching, we spotted Patches, the most famous, offshore Bottlenose Dolphin on the West Coast! Patches is a rare, black-and-white piebald dolphin. His unique coloration is called leucism and results from a partial loss of pigmentation that causes Patches to have white, patchy colorations on his skin. Patches is usually seen frolicking with other offshore Bottlenose Dolphins and always thrills the guests,…
We began our Summer Whale Watching and Dolphin Watching season with sunny skies, calm seas, and a sampling of baleen whales. Each cruise was filled with thousands of playful dolphins, mostly Common Dolphins, but also Pacific Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins. At times, the dolphins surrounded the Adventure Hornblower as they leapt nearby and rode the bow and stern wakes of the boat. The highlights of the cruises, were cameo appearances by…
We wrapped-up an amazing Whale & Dolphin watching season on Sunday. Along with migrating Gray Whales throughout the season, we finished with a record number of Humpback Whale sightings in March and Fin Whale sightings in April! Our season totals of baleen whales were 633 Gray Whales, 165 Humpback Whales, 59 Fin Whales, 1 Blue Whale and 2 Minke Whales. We also enjoyed encounters with tens of thousands of Dolphins,…
We found our first Fin Whales of the season last week. Also called Finback Whales, fin whales are the second largest whale in the world — reaching lengths of 85 feet (26 meters) or the length of two school buses parked end to end. Like other baleen whales, females grow larger than males. Fin Whales can be identified in the field by their prominent, falcate (curved-back) dorsal fin and their…
For most of March, we've been thrilled by numerous encounters with Humpback Whales — a new record of 160 sightings in 3 weeks! Our San Diego Whale & Dolphin Watching Tours have transformed into whale, dolphin, sea lion and seabird watching cruises as the Humpbacks and other ocean wildlife are gorging on an abundance of small, schooling bait fish off the San Diego coast. Many of the captain's, naturalists and guests…
[caption id="attachment_1310" align="aligncenter" width="520"] A gray whale mother (left) swims with her newborn calf (right).[/caption] One of the highlights of the gray whale migration is watching mothers tend to their tiny, newborn calves as they travel south. We spotted our first cow-calf pair on January 7 and have seen a couple other pairs during the week. As of January 13, The American Cetacean Society's Gray Whale Census has reported 8 newborn calves…
