Visit the RV Sea Explorer in Dana Point, California

California travel expert Veronica Hill interviews Mike Burske, a sea captain for the RV Sea Explorer in Dana Point, about whale watching in this episode of "CaliforniaTravelTips."

Veronica: Considered one of the best places in California to whale watch by land, Dana point harbor is home to a number of whale watching tours, but one of the best whale watching trips in my opinion is aboard the Ocean Institutes RV Sea Explorer, armed with the latest oceanography equipment the Sea Explorer host a number of educational boat tours. To learn more, I met with the Sea Explorer’s captain Mike Bursk. So what can you tell me about the programs you offer on the Explorer. Mike: Well the marine cruises on weekends we have public programs on weekends, our goal really is to go out and look at the most interesting Citation and that’s a fancy word for whales and dolphins, that happen to be in the area at a given time of year. We have a lot of resident animals; we have four or five types of dolphins that you can see at any point, any month, any day. The interesting thing that people love are the larger whales, which come and go with the seasons, gray whales in the winter, blue whales in the summer. And so right now, we’re transitioning into blue whale season, we have a cow calf blue whale a day before yesterday, so it’s off into an early and a good start. Veronica: Now I understand, this is the whale watching capital of the west. Mike: Logistically, when you look at a map or chart of the coast, it does extend out a little bit, so it’s like a jump off point into the blue pacific and it seems to be gathering point, there are some big canyons off shore that food gathers, so the whales come to prey on that. And it is definitely a mecca. One of the great things about this particular boat is sometimes during whale watching, there are some travel time, and on some boats, during travel time, you travel, on this boat, you are force to learn incredible things about the ocean. We stop and get samples with our equipment so that during travel passengers aboard would have a chance to check out plankton, benthic creatures, small fish, we have a troll net that drag to get little fish that we let go later after they’re kept in our live tank. We have a plankton net, we have a benthic grab, we have all kinds of fun toys so that there’s no down time. Veronica: What does plankton look like exactly? Mike: Well, there, as you know, plankton, phytoplankton are very small zooplankton are very small, and zooplankton look like little shrimp, if you take a picture of a zooplankton and blow it up, a lot of them look like something you want to put melted butter on them. Many of them are arthropods, so they resemble shrimp or lobster. Phytoplankton are little plants that are so tiny and they are such odd little shapes, they look like blown glass creations at an art show. And so, zooplankton are easily recognizable as animals, phytoplankton could look like anything. They look like snowflakes. Veronica: What other things that this boat apart from other tours that go out to sea? Mike: We’re the only boat staff with degree biologist, our staff all have four year degrees, life science degrees, and I don’t think there’s any other vessel, anywhere that does that. So, we have usually three, sometimes four staff wandering the decks as ambassadors to answer any questions people have. Veronica: You have night cruises also that you… Mike: We do a night cruise, we have a phenomenon called bioluminescence, a lot of creatures in the ocean are able to glow and so if you go out in a moonless night in the right conditions, you have a really vividly glowing ocean and that’s popular. Veronica: Next time you’re in southern California, check out the RV Sea Explorer’s ocean cruises. From Catalina snorkeling to bioluminescent night cruises, there’s a little something for everyone. For more California travel videos, tips and advice log on to californiatravelexpert.com.