If spotting a pod of dolphins takes your breath away, prepared to be staggered by the sight of 1,500 of them. The AP reports that Monterey Bay Whale Watch on Friday managed to get drone footage of a "super pod" of Risso's dolphins in central California's Carmel Bay. "They were on the horizon I feel like as far as I could see," said Capt. Evan Brodsky, who captured the footage while in the bay looking for grey whales.
While his team quickly realized the pod was massive, they didn't realize just how big until they got the drone aloft. "I was just blown away … I kept saying: 'Look at my screen. Look at my screen. Look how many there are,'" said Brodsky. "It just blows my mind every time. It never gets old." Those numbers are unusual, reports the AP, which cites the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as saying the dolphins typically travel in groups of 10 to 30.
As for why that wasn't the case this time, the AP notes that the Monterey coastline is a particularly good location for dolphins, who prefer very deep water. An underwater submarine canyon present there allows the dolphins to hug closer to the shore than they can elsewhere in California. In 2013, NBC News reported on another exceptional sighting: a "super megapod" of dolphins off San Diego that stretched seven miles long and five miles wide; witnesses estimated there were as many as 100,000 dolphins present. (More dolphins stories.)
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