L.A.’s Metropolitan Dolphins

Working Off Malibu With Creatures Who Are a Lot Like Us

I turn the research boat offshore toward the outer reaches of Santa Monica Bay and deeper water. Flocks of western grebes float on the ocean surface, clustered as if they might be attending a convention. Brown pelicans soar in ordered formation. My research team is silent, scanning the surface for some sign, any sign–an odd wave pattern, a flurry of seabird activity, a blow of a whale, or a dark fin emerging from the surface. A California sea lion pops its head up like a submarine periscope, looks at us, …