(Video courtesy of Robin Lowe)
DANA POINT — A piebald dolphin called “Patches” is back off the coast of Orange County again.
The black and white speckled leucistic offshore bottlenose dolphin, first seen off Southern California in 2006, was seen four miles off the Dana Point headlands swimming southwest in a pod of 40 other bottlenose dolphins on Monday, May 22. A short while later, the pod turned and swam northwest.
Robin Lowe, an American Cetacean Society naturalist riding aboard Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching’s Ocean Adventure, was the first to glimpse the white silhouette of the unusually marked dolphin after Capt. Steve Burkhalter spotted the pod.
“I was over the moon with excitement,” said Lowe, who had seen photos of Patches but had never actually seen him live. “As the naturalist on board, I was able to explain how rare it is to see Patches. It also afforded the opportunity to explain what “leucisitic” means.
Leucism is a condition in which a reduction in melanin causes a partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, Lowe said.
Lowe said she has seen only one other leucistic dolphin, a Risso dolphin that she named Domino.
Patches was first spotted by naturalist Mark Tyson in 2006. His coloration – varying between dark and light shades of gray, white and pink markings – makes him distinctive among others in his pod. Since then, there have been infrequent sightings, often going a year between glimpses. He has been spotted as far south as San Diego and as far north as Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands.
Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a marine biologist and director of the ACSLA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project at Point Vicente, is also familiar with the unique colored dolphin.
Schulman-Janiger first spotted him in 2008.
“He has been seen from San Diego to Santa Cruz Island,” she said. “He usually travels in a group of 50 to 100 bottlenose dolphins. I have seen him twice.”
Schulman-Janiger said he was also spotted by her volunteer census group this year off Point Vicente.
“He was too far out to confirm, but he was encountered a short time later,” she said.
For Donna Kalez, who operates Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching, the dolphin is extra special.
“He always brings us good luck,” she said.
And Kalez’s boat captain, Todd Mansur, said the dolphin is his favorite.
“He is so unique and there are so many people who want to see him,” Mansur said. “He’s a bucket list. I got really lucky one time and stuck my camera out and got him head-on.”
Common bottlenose dolphins live between 45- 65 years, Mansur said. Patches is likely a young adult.
Patches, is one of several unusual mammals spotted off the Dana Point coastline. There’s also Casper, a white (possibly albino) common dolphin; Notcho, a 70-foot, 140-ton blue whale; Delta, an 80-foot, 160-ton blue whale whose tail flukes turn up like an airplane wing; and Hook, an 80-foot, 130-ton blue whale whose fluke is shaped like a crescent moon. The animals have found a reliable source of food and they keep coming back. Some of the whales stay as long as several months. Others like Patches are seen less frequently.
