The best West Coast boats for birding are about 50 feet long and take about 25 passengers at speeds between 14-18 knots. This allows ample seabird watching opportunities in a 9-hour trip. Once we leave the bay and cross the bar there is about 3 miles of inshore bird activity. Birds here include numerous gulls, loons, scoters, Brown Pelicans, cormorants, Common Murres, Pigeon Guillemots, and Marbled Murrelets. Marine mammals common in this zone include California sea lions, harbor seals, harbor porpoises, and gray whales.
Birds quickly diminish in number and variety.
An hour into our trip, about 15 miles offshore, we start encountering larger numbers of fulmars and shearwaters, picking up Buller's Shearwaters after mid-August. Pomarine Jaegers are the most-frequently encountered of the jaegers. Somewhere between here and 20 miles from shore we will see our first Black-footed Albatrosses. Offshore 30 miles we are in the heart of albatross territory. While not numerous, most trips encounter several marine animals.