A moment like this is a reminder of how beautiful nature can be.
San Clemente waterman Chuck Patterson filmed a rare scene at sea on Sunday, July 14 — a massive pod of dolphins swimming and leaping alongside a boat he was on.
Patterson was with friends on a 95-foot vessel off the coast of Laguna Beach when the dolphins, hundreds of them, suddenly appeared at about 12:30 p.m.
“They came out of nowhere,” he said. “They looked like they were going down the coast and kind of hooked up with us to go up the coast. We were by ourselves the whole time. It was really cool.”
Patterson, who with his friends had just finished a foiling session out at sea, said he’s seen mega pods like this up around the Channel Islands before, but never in such a tight group swimming along both sides of a boat.
On the video, with a hazy Laguna Beach as the backdrop, Patterson’s elation is clear.
“Noooo way, they are going off! So sick!” he can be heard saying, hooting for the pod as they kept speed with the boat.
Mega pods are not unheard of off Orange County’s coastline, with whale-watching charters occasionally reporting such sights, sometimes referred to as “stampedes.”
Patterson and his group weren’t the only ones to get a glimpse of the stampede. Caryn Coblio said her family was out at sea having a memorial service for her stepfather, Laguna Beach native Jonathan Robertson, that same day.
“We had just released him in a biodegradable sea turtle box,” she wrote in an e-mail. “About 30 seconds later this pod showed up surrounding where we had left his box. It was incredible. The box was floating, then as it absorbed water it sank. Then we set off and the dolphins appeared.”
Southern California has the greatest density of dolphins per square mile of anywhere on Earth, including nearly 450,000 common dolphins. The area is one of the best places in the world to see large mega pods, which can number in herds of up to 10,000, according to Capt. Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari in Dana Point.
A large pod jumping, flipping and spinning in the air was documented again on Tuesday, July 16, next to Newport Coastal Adventure’s inflatable charter boat.
Patterson said Sunday’s pod hung with his boat for about 25 minutes.
“They were pretty impressive how fast they were charging,” he said.
“It’s amazing. It’s just something that tells you and shows you the ocean is alive and gives you a different respect of how beautiful nature is and we really need to preserve it more to see these magic moments. It’s super empowering. It was one of those feel-good moments. You could watch them for hours.”
