Nature
PUBLISHED
Hold onto your hats folks, it's super pod time! Off the coast of California, in Carmel Bay, Risso’s dolphins have been seen traveling, leaping, and swimming south in a super pod more than 1,500 strong.
Risso’s dolphins might not be the most elegant or beautiful of the dolphin groups; they have large grey bodies and blunt heads. While they are born gray or even olivey brown, their bodies become covered in scars from other dolphins and squid, turning them white over time. The species is named after the naturalist Antoine Risso, who also has a lanternfish to his name.
These stocky dolphins are known to be social but typically travel in smaller pods of around 10-30 individuals. Spotted and filmed by the Monterey Bay Whale Watch team, the drone footage reveals hundreds of the dolphins all traveling together. They have even been recorded traveling with other cetacean species though this is rare.
“They were on the horizon I feel like as far as I could see,” Captain Evan Brodsk from the Monterey Bay Whale Watch who filmed the dolphins with his drone, told AP News.
In the video, which the team shared on social media, the dolphins can be seen leaping, and even bow-riding at the front of the boat. Risso’s dolphins prefer deep water so the coastline of northern California provides the perfect setting for a super pod party.
“Once we put the drone up, I was just blown away … I kept saying, ‘Look at my screen. Look at my screen. Look how many there are,’” said Brodsky. “It just blows my mind every time. It never gets old.”
While these dolphins have a pretty stable distribution and aren’t thought to migrate, their local movements could be driven by changes in the squid population. Some studies have revealed that the dolphins typically feed at night on squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish which move closer to the surface when the sun goes down.
“They were just having a great time. So they were breaching everywhere, tail slapping, coming right over to the boat. They looked like they were having a big party,” Colleen Talty from the Monterey Bay Whale Watch said.
