A few weeks ago James, the girls, and I took a marine mammal cruise on the R/V Sea Explorer through the Ocean Institute of Dana Point, CA. We took this cruise several years ago with Julia when she was 4 and now that Serena is 4 she can go too.
3 reasons I love the Marine Mammal Cruise through the Ocean Institute:
- The staff and volunteers on the boat are there because they love what they do and they are extremely knowledgeable about the mammals we see.
- Not only are we looking for the whale of the season, but we learn about the seabirds, fish, dolphins, and sea lions. The R/V Sea Explorer is an actual research vessel.
- At the end of each cruise the kids are invited to the back of the boat where they watch mud from the bottom of the ocean be scooped up and dropped on the back of the boat. Then the kids get to help sort through the marine life found in the mud, name them, and place them in the proper petri dishes. Cool, right?
There is an abundance of marine life to view on this cruise. We saw:
- several pods of common dolphin
- sea lions
- 3 blue whales! In case you don’t know, blue whales are the largest marine mammal and they are endangered. The can measure up to 100 feet long. In other words they are really BIG!
We were hoping to see at least one blue whale on this cruise. Many blue whale sightings have occurred recently and gosh darn it would be so awesome to see one.
The last cruise we did was in February which is gray whale season and we luckily saw a gray whale at that time.
I do not have any photos of the blue whales, but I was able to video one of the whales lifting its tail flukes. I will post it here soon.
Here are a few more pics:
The cost for the cruise is normally $35 for adults and $22 for kids, less if you are a member.
I found a deal through a local coupon company for $28 for 1 adult and 1 child. We saved more than 50% of the going price. Deal!
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