Today's report from Shinae:

Another fabulous day on Bottlenose dolphin survey! The weather wasn't too cooperative with clouds and thick mist, which almost felt like a rain, but we were prepared with lots of layers. Today's dolphin survey team, Brian, Robert, Rania, Sean and I left Moss Landing harbor shortly after 8am and saw two dolphins just as we were leaving the channel. We followed them to the south part of the bay and saw our first school of dolphins consisting of at least two pairs of cow/calf pairs and a few adults.

As the dolphins started to scatter we moved to the North Bay where we spotted a second school of dolphins included at least seven to ten dolphins. Among them, we observed as two dolphins cooperatively chased, pinned , and played with a large fish. As the dolphins tossed the fish into the air near the surf line, Sean identified the prey as a King salmon . It was an incredible sight!

The waves getting roughter and the wind was cold but we coudln't possibly call it a day, so we decided to go back to the South Bay to see if the first school of dolphins we saw ealier was still around. We started seeing few dolphins as we came close to the channel of the harbor and several more off the South Bay. The two cow/calf pairs we observed ealier in the morning from the first school of dolphins were still there! The excitement started when Sean and Brian shouted out "One of them caught a fish!!". We all turned around kept our eyes open (I kept my camera open) to see what it has in it's mouth. It was extremely hard to take a snap shot of the dolphin when it came out of the surface with a light colored object in it's mouth. I managed to take a single photo that is hard to clearely identify what it was in the dolphin's mouth.

Later when we came back to the house, Daniela thought it might have been a fetus of the dolphin, which she has seen a dead calf/immature fetus carried around by dolphins. On our way back to the harbor from such an exciting day at the sea, we saw a sealion feeding on a sunfish. Aside from being wet and cold, It truly was an amazing day.