2022 07-22 SB Channel
The trip started under a high marine layer, but it burned off to bright sun and we had blue skies the rest of the day. Sightings included: 3 humpback whales, 3000 long-beaked common dolphins and 75 offshore bottlenose dolphins.
Captain Dave and the crew headed southwest towards the East Channel NOAA buoy, and just west of it we began moving between pods of common dolphins. These groups were 100 – 200 strong. As we studied these pods, we ended up in The Lanes.
Here we found and watched our first whale, the same large adult we watched yesterday. It seemed to recognize the Condor Express and made some very close approaches and everyone had great looks. Not too far away we located a mother humpback with her calf. They were feeding along with a large herd of common dolphins and were great to watch. At this point we were off the western end of beautiful Santa Cruz Island.
As we turned to head back to the harbor, our path intersected a robust group of highly aerial offshore common dolphins. It was almost like a leaping contest as one would take off and get about 15 feet out of the water, only send the next leaper flying high…and so forth. What a great encounter!
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com
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