San Diego Whale Watch

San Diego Whale Watch San Diego's FIRST year round whale and dolphin watching experience! Www.sdwhalewatch.com

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Contact [email protected] for more info** We embark on 3-hour trips aboard the Privateer in the search for a variety of marine animals. We often see sea lions, seals, a variety of birds, dolphins, and different species of whales depending on the time of year. Throughout the months of December-April, we enjoy the annual Gray Whale migration along the coast of California. In the summer, we are

able to encounter the mighty Blue Whales feeding miles offshore! We get occasional visits from Humpback, Minke and Fin Whales, as well as Sea Turtles and even sharks! Join us on one of our whale watching adventures to enjoy some of the Pacific Ocean's most magnificent creatures! All photos are property of San Diego Whale Watch unless otherwise noted and were taken aboard our vessel. They can not be reproduced or used without permission. All images © 2014-2018 San Diego Whale Watching LLC

A lovely day after the Memorial Day holiday weekend. On both trips, we spotted thousands of seabirds flying in an excit...
05/27/2025

A lovely day after the Memorial Day holiday weekend. On both trips, we spotted thousands of seabirds flying in an excited manner, indicating an “all you can eat ocean buffet” of schooling fish, in multiple “bait balls” just beyond the Mission Bay Channel entrance. Minutes later, our passenger guests were greeted enthusiastically by Common Dolphins foraging on the hapless fish. We witnessed an amazing spectacle, a feeding frenzy for so many of our feathered and flippers friends. Our vessel, the Privateer, voyaged out close to 8 nautical miles in waters approaching 1,600’ in depth. Hope to see you and your friends and family soon on a future whale watch. Naturalist Greg

Memorial Day Sunset Cruise was delightful, with Nearshore Bottlenose dolphins crossing our bow at the Mission Bay Channe...
05/27/2025

Memorial Day Sunset Cruise was delightful, with Nearshore Bottlenose dolphins crossing our bow at the Mission Bay Channel Entrance. We cruised northwest off the coast of LaJolla and found 70 Offshore Bottlenose dolphins. They came right up to our boat, turned on their sides and looked right into our eyes. We could see the rake marks or scratches on the bodies and noticed a few cow/calf or mother and baby pairs. We hope that the unofficial start of summer and the longer days entices you to come out and enjoy a whale watch soon. Captain Michael, Naturalist Greg, Galley Cameron, Deckhands Sam and Melissa appreciated everyone’s enthusiasm.

Happy Memorial Day! We had such an epic day so far! We spent the day hanging out with cetaceans on the Pacific Ocean! On...
05/26/2025

Happy Memorial Day! We had such an epic day so far! We spent the day hanging out with cetaceans on the Pacific Ocean! On the morning trip we had a massive feeding frenzy of ~200 long-beaked common dolphins, California sea lions, shearwaters, terns and one humpback whale!! Everyone was feeding on whaley big bait balls located near the 9 mile embankment. On our afternoon trip, we went north towards La Jolla and found a pod of ~30 offshore bottlenose dolphins. We travelled further north and located another FINtastic feeding frenzy with hundreds of elegant terns, ~300 common dolphins and more bait balls! 🙂 On our way home, Captain John spotted a spout and whale tail from a humpback whale located in ~150 feet of water! It was travelling northwest when we last saw i! We have more ocean fun coming up for the sunset trip! Please stay tuned!

Naturalist,
Melissa

Such a fun and beautiful day on the water! Every trip is always different and we never what we are going to see! For our...
05/25/2025

Such a fun and beautiful day on the water! Every trip is always different and we never what we are going to see!

For our morning trip we cruised out to the west and just beyond the drop-off we spotted diving birds and a big pod of ~400 short-beaked Common dolphins! They were launching out of the water breach and porpoising! Many of squealed as we spotted the tiny calves testing out their breaching skills! They were slowly headed to the SW. We waved goodbye to our new dolphriends and reached the 9-mile bank. We spotted a Minke whale that popped up out of nowhere. It was zigzagging toward the SE. After about 10 sightings it gave us the slip. We continued to the north and caught up with a super fun pod of ~100 Offshore bottlenose dolphin that were very energetic porpoising all around the Privateer. To our happy surprise a baleen whale popped up nearby. It was going opposite direction and was headed NW. At first, we thought it was a Minke due to the small size, but was actually putting up a 10-15ft spout. After reviewing our photos, we confirmed it was a Bryde’s whale! Not a normal sight for us this time of year but we not too disappointed! lol

On our afternoon trip we set out toward deeper water in hopes for more amazing wildlife. Only a few miles from shore outside of the Pacific beach we spotted a huge feeding frenzy! Underneath was a fun pod of ~200 Long-beaked Common dolphin! They were busy feeding but some did break away to hang out with us! We continued out toward the 9-mile bank. Out to the west was a bit quiet but on our way in we spotted another pod of Long beaked Common dolphins. This time the pod was huge! There was close to ~700 dolphins scattered across multiple bait balls! It was a bad day to be an anchovy! We had a fun time watching the calves leap about! Plenty of birds were diving all around us, keeping things exciting!

The seas settled from their mid day mischief this evening, we enjoyed a pretty smooth ride out past the drop off where we encountered a massive 3 square mile spread of long beaked common dolphins. We estimated there were about ~ 500 in our vicinity. Some groups were moseying around while others were vivaciously hunting bait fish. The lighting was so dramatic, we had 80% clear blue skies with a wall of clouds chasing down the sun - it created some incredible contrast that was SO MISLEADING - every leap from particularly enthusiastic dolphin resembled a spout. But no baleen in sight, and no chatter of baleen on the radio. Excited to see what surprises the sea has for us tomorrow! See ya then!

Naturalist,
Vanessa & Alison

Beautiful wildlife on our AM and PM trips today! This morning, we headed west out of Mission Bay to begin our day on the...
05/24/2025

Beautiful wildlife on our AM and PM trips today! This morning, we headed west out of Mission Bay to begin our day on the water. Just after we reached the continental shelf, we began to see splashes in the distance. We found a small group of 50 common bottlenose dolphins, and on our way back home we found a group of 50 short-beaked common dolphins surfing the wake of a fishing vessel, eventually making their way over to us. Both groups were quite acrobatic, showing breaching, tail-lobbing, chin-slapping and much more. We also sighted some mom and calf pairs in these groups which was very exciting!!

In the afternoon, conditions got slightly bumpier, but we made our way straight out west to hopefully catch up with some more dolphins. Soon, we found ourselves surrounded by a super fin-tastic and spunky group of short-beaked common dolphins!! There were several little ones in this pod, making our encounter even more special. This group was certainly more acrobatic than the last, showing us some backwards breaches and leaping entirely out of the water as they surfed our wake.

It’s really been a wonderful day out here on the water, and we’re excited to update you all later about our sunset trip! Hope to ~sea~ you all soon on a trip with us!

We’re just trying to coast through life like a fin whale! On today’s sunset trip, we had a whale of a time with ~400 common dolphriends, hundreds of sea birds, a few California sea lions and one FINe looking Fin whale! 🙂 Sea conditions and visibility were also great throughout the trip. If you want to enjoy Sunday Funday tomorrow, why don’t you come out with us and we’ll show you a whaley great time!

Naturalists,
Olivia, Vanessa & Melissa

On our day trips, we were excited to have 1 fin whale and 2 humpback whales feeding on a huge baitball. We were photo-b...
05/23/2025

On our day trips, we were excited to have 1 fin whale and 2 humpback whales feeding on a huge baitball. We were photo-bombed by friendly, inquisitive, hungry dolphins! We saw two types of Bottlenose dolphin, the Nearshore and Offshore. We also had a super-pod of thousands of Long-beaked Common dolphins, circling the baitball and taking turns to feed on the hapless fish. We were in awe of their power, grace and beauty as many entertained us by bow-riding between feeding bouts, showing us their incredible skills. Thousands of Sooty Shearwaters, recent arrivals from the South Island of New Zealand, were amongst the zig-zagging dolphins, enjoying a feast of fish protein. We encourage you to join us again with your friends on a future San Diego Whale Watch.

We’ve got the mid day wall of fog holding to the coast these days but that isn’t stopping us from finding all the wild l...
05/23/2025

We’ve got the mid day wall of fog holding to the coast these days but that isn’t stopping us from finding all the wild life! We had nearly a thousand common dolphins on our first trip of the day and a breaching humpback WITH MORE DOLPHINS on our sunset trip.
It’s getting closer to summer but we’ve had the most incredible humpback spring! They’ve been in the air an awful lot for an ocean mammal.

Naturalist, Alison

Could today have been anymore beautiful?We were graced with sparkly clear seas and sunny skies and 3 kinds of cetaceans!...
05/20/2025

Could today have been anymore beautiful?
We were graced with sparkly clear seas and sunny skies and 3 kinds of cetaceans!
The Ohana made her way out to the northwest and caught up with the most graceful pod ~40 bottlenose dolphins. They surfed along side and showed us some acrobatic leaps! We changed direction as we crossed the drop off to the south and was surprised by a very sneaky fin whale. Despite being known for making spouts 30ft in the air, this whale was making more discrete spout. That being said we still got some really good looks.
The fun didn’t stop there as we heading back to sunny San Diego, ~100 long beaked common dolphins swimming in a tight knit pod joined the Ohana bow riding and surfing!
All and all a great day on the water and more spots available on our sunset whale watch today!

Rainblows, a mega pod and a gorgeous sunset sums up our sunset whale watch! We cruised out to the west and only a few miles from shore, we caught up with a huge pod of ~400 Long-beaked Common dolphin accompanied by a juvenile Humpback whale! We got really good looks at the Humpy as it popped next to us a few times. We could hear its powerful exhalation and were even lucky enough to see a gorgeous rain blow (a rainbow in the spout)! We got to see its tail flukes almost every time! After spending a nice amount of time with them, we left them behind and headed west toward deeper water. We spotted a breaching Mola mola and enjoyed the smooth seas. On our way in we spotted the same pod of dolphins however they recruited some friends because we cruised through about 2-miles of dolphins totaling over 1000! It was so beautiful to see them jumping out of the water with the sun shining on their backs!

Naturalist,
Ruth & Vanessa

We just spotted our first blue whale of the official season, and we couldn’t be more excited! After a surprise appearanc...
05/20/2025

We just spotted our first blue whale of the official season, and we couldn’t be more excited! After a surprise appearance back in March, it looks like the blue whales are here to stay.

Join us on a special sunset cruise tomorrow for a chance to witness these magnificent giants up close. Book now and make unforgettable memories on the water!

BLUE WHALE! Our guest passengers had the good fortune of seeing the hard-to-get largest animal on the planet, the 90-fo...
05/19/2025

BLUE WHALE! Our guest passengers had the good fortune of seeing the hard-to-get largest animal on the planet, the 90-foot long Blue whale about 8 nautical miles offshore. We also had the 2nd largest whale in the world, the Fin Whale and about 350 Long-beaked Common Dolphins. Our sightings were augmented by seeing two large Mola mola or Ocean Sunfish. Come join us tomorrow as we are into our Blue Whale season!

Naturalists,
Greg & Melissa

What. A. Show! We had an amazing encounter with a curious humpback whale that not only breached several times but also ...
05/17/2025

What. A. Show! We had an amazing encounter with a curious humpback whale that not only breached several times but also swam right up to our boat to check us out! Moments like this remind us just how intelligent and inquisitive these animals can be. Humpbacks often approach vessels out of curiosity, and when they do, it’s always on their terms.

Fun fact: Humpback whales have been observed showing interest in boats and even individuals in the water—suggesting a level of social awareness that continues to fascinate researchers.

We are BREACHING into the weekend!We had an whaley awesome afternoon trip with ~700 Long-beaked Common dolphins and a br...
05/16/2025

We are BREACHING into the weekend!

We had an whaley awesome afternoon trip with ~700 Long-beaked Common dolphins and a breaching Humpback whale! We spotted the birds and dolphins just a couple miles from shore! We cruised by them as they raced up to our boat to bow ride. A Humpback spout was sighted to the south of them. We enjoyed watching the mellow juvenile Humpback following the dolphins. We waved goodbye to our humpback friend and caught up with the pod of dolphins. They were exhilarating to watch as they launched out of the water, breaching, and porpoising! There were lots of juvenile commons all around! We spotted the Humpback again so we went back to check it out. It was doing the same thing traveling along when all of a sudden it popped up beside us on our starboard side! Then we all screamed when the humpback appeared in front of us by BREACHING out of the water! It didn’t just breach once but several more times, including chin slapping and tail lobbing! It popped up again one more time just 10-ft from our boat which was incredible!

We hope we have the same good luck on our sunset! We will you update you soon!

Naturalist,
Vanessa

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1617 Quivira Road
San Diego, CA
92109

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Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm
Sunday 9am - 5pm

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San Diego's FIRST year round whale and dolphin watching experience! We embark on 3-hour trips aboard the Privateer in the search for a variety of marine animals. We often see sea lions, seals, a variety of birds, dolphins, and different species of whales depending on the time of year. Throughout the months of December-April, we enjoy the annual Gray Whale migration along the coast of California. In the summer, we are able to encounter the mighty Blue Whales feeding miles offshore! We get occasional visits from Humpback, Minke and Fin Whales, as well as Sea Turtles and even sharks! Join us on one of our whale watching adventures to enjoy some of the Pacific Ocean's most magnificent creatures!

Address: 1717 Quivira Rd. San Diego, CA, 92109

Phone: 619-839-0128