Thousands of dolphins spotted in the Monterey Bay

If you’re out on the Monterey Bay, you’ve likely been lucky enough to see a dolphin or two.

Recently there have been swarms of them. And the reason may have a lot to do with ocean activity

Kelsey Haynes is a naturalist and marine biologist with Princess Monterey Whale Watch. She says, “A superpod of dolphins come rolling through the bay—, so we were seeing more so like a thousand of them.”

Many people have been spotting them. Cody Cromwell is a commercial fisherman. He was doing some squid fishing the other day and was treated to a surprise.”Yeah it was pretty cool. We were on our way back from Half Moon Bay and they were following the boat and were waddling around a lot, checking it out, it was cool,” says Cody.

Haynes says seeing a pack of dolphins like this isn’t necessarily rare, but it is unpredictable. This typically happens during what’s called ocean upwelling. “These winds come through here and churn our deep waters up. All the nutrients are at the bottom, so when that gets churned up to the top it interacts with the sunlight, creates these big blooms, and that is what draws in all the fish species to feed usually during the summer and fall,” Haynes said.

Typically when you think of dolphins you think of the bottle-nose dolphin, which is found in movies like “Flipper.” What we have been seeing in the bay recently, is known as the common dolphin.

And seeing this kind of activity in the water makes a long day of fishing.. that much better. “Cause they are super playful, you know. They just want to come and hang out. Sometimes you mess with them and squirt the hose at them. And they’re like [this] you know. I don’t know they will play with you and stuff- They’re pretty cool.”

Now the dolphin superpod is starting to dwindle, but that’s not leaving the bay empty. Killer whales are now being spotted. And despite their name, killer whales are actually a type of dolphin.