San Diego pelagic trip this Saturday

The San Diego pelagic trip this coming Saturday, June 3rd, still has plenty of spaces available. Reservations can be made by calling Seaforth Sportfishing or just showing up at the dock Saturday morning around 6:00-6:15 AM. The trip departs at 7AM and returns no later than 6PM. This is one of the regularly scheduled Buena Vista Audubon sponsored trips on “Legacy” from Mission Bay out to the 9-Mile and 30-Mile Banks and “The Corner.” The current marine forecast for Saturday is good, with only 2 or 2-3 foot swells and a nice long interval. And there may a nice breeze for later in the day to get those Cook’s Petrels up arcing!!

In addition to seeing the more expected offshore species, we also hope to find Craveri’s Murrelets to go with the Scripps’s Murrelets, and Ashy Storm-Petrels to go with the common Black Storm-Petrels. Early June often produces the last of the northbound seabird migrants, so perhaps things like Red Phalarope and Sabine’s Gull. Rare species that have been found repeatedly over the years at this time of year include Cook’s Petrel, albatrosses, South Polar Skua, Red-billed Tropicbird, and Black Tern. Cook’s Petrel was seen at the 30-Mile Bank already 10 days ago. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but there are plenty of juicy possibilities. This is also a good time of year to see whales, including Blue, Fin, and Humpback.

–Paul Lehman, Dave Povey, Bruce Rideout, et al., San Diego