Kelping behavior by a humpback whale. Photo taken on yesterday’s expedition.
Captain Dave ran southwest for quite a while to a location where 6 killer whales had been reported 2 hours earlier by the sportfishing vessel Stardust. Unfortunately killer whales can move a great distance in any direction they choose within a 2 hour window, so we never got on the pod. Back at the Island hot spot we closely watched 5 blue whales today…some kind of a record for November 29th. In addition, 12 humpback whales gave good close looks with many more spouts in the area. Among the humpback whale behaviors recorded there was more of that “racing or chasing” high speed surface swimming going on. Our best uneducated guess is that this is some precursory mating behavior. We saw this first last Wednesday. A few nice kelping episodes were also observed where the humpbacks get a skin massage by rolling and gyrating in drifting giant kelp paddies, sending vegetation flying every which way…always a great show.
Schedule update: there is no trip scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday, due to the rough weather forecast by NOAA and NWS. Our next open whale watch will be Wednesday.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
P.S. The photos of yesterdays “Gray-Blue-Humpback” extravaganza are now online at https://www.condorexpressphotos.com/2014/2014-11-28-SB-Channel
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