A group of over 2,000 dolphins — including some rarely spotted species — were caught on camera swimming off the coast of California.
The phenomenon, known as a super pod, was captured by Evan Brodsky, a boat captain and videographer, while conducting research with his crew in Monterey Bay, Calif., last Friday.
Brodsky, who works for Monterey Bay Whale Watch, a private boat touring company in the area, told NBC News that he and his colleagues encountered the super pod after following close to a dozen dolphins they noticed about 18 km from the shore.
Super pod of white-sided dolphins spotted near Vancouver Island
Among the group were northern right whale dolphins, a famously elusive species that usually keeps to deeper waters away from the coast.
Northern right whale dolphins are distinct for their lack of a dorsal fin, the flat triangular appendage located on the back of many marine animals, including sharks and whales.
“They’re all smooth…when they jump, they look like flying eyebrows,” Brodsky told NBC News.
Photographer Evan Brodsky said the jumping dolphins looked like “flying eyebrows.”
Evan Brodsky
According to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation, a U.K.-based nonprofit, right whale dolphins have a marked black and white pattern on the underside of their bodies and are commonly mistaken for herds of leaping fur seals or sea lions due to their shape and colour.
The seldom-seen creatures, which tend to travel in large groups of 100 to 200, often mix with other highly sociable and acrobatic species, including Pacific white-sided dolphins, short-finned pilot whales and Risso’s dolphins.
On Friday, the right whale dolphins were joined in Monterey Bay by light grey baby calves and hundreds of Pacific white-sided dolphins, according to the boat captain.
The nonprofit says groups of up to 3,000 individual northern right whale dolphins have been recorded in the past.