M/V Sea Lion, March 26, 2018
Today on our trip aboard M/V Sea Lion we had an amazing encounter with Dall’s Porpoises! These cetaceans are some pretty cool animals that we occasionally have the pleasure of seeing on our trips! And today they treated us to an absolutely awesome viewing!
On our way north into Strait of Georgia we had a pod of Dall’s Porpoises join us for a play date! This pod of about 15-20 Dall’s Porpoises started riding the wake and swimming back and forth in front of us! We were lucky enough to watch them play for quite a few minutes as they darted back and forth from the bow to the sides creating “rooster tail” sprays as they zig zagged on the water’s surface!
Dall’s Porpoise are the fastest of the small marine mammals, with the ability to swim as fast as 35 mph! These porpoises can grow to be about 7.5 ft long and anywhere between 300 to almost 500 pounds! One cool feature about these Dall’s is that their tail fluke is much thicker than their other Porpoise cousins. Dall’s have a very thick appearance in their tail because they have extra muscle that allows them to flap and swim incredibly fast- thus their tail and spine are extra built for this characteristic.
It is not uncommon to see Dall’s in groups like we saw today, Dall’s can live in pods with anywhere from 2-15 members, and are known to be quite the playful species. Different groups will come together to feed and interact. These larger groups will also come together for play dates- just as the one they allowed us to join in on today! It certainly was a day of great porpoise!
Cheers,
Naturalist Alexandria