Wednesday, August 17, 2016 – A fin whale, five humpback whales and at least 2,000 long-beaked common dolphins rounded out the “closely watched” sightings report for today. Luckily, sea and wind conditions had diminished quite a bit as compared to yesterday. Here are the details:
The first encounter began west of the East Channel Buoy. Hundreds of dolphins located the Condor Express, and Captain Dave ran west along the dolphin group line-up. Not far into this sighting a medium-small fin whale popped up and gave several really good looks to all. We continued to run west.
The second encounter included a single humpback whale which eventually joined up with three additional whales to make a temporary quad pod. The first whale had a white-speckled dorsal fin and tail fluke. Soon the specked fin whale went west and the later three went off in a different direction. Dave followed the original whale to the west.
The last leg of the excursion began with Dave looping around and taking and easterly heading all the way back to the harbor. Another humpback whale was sighted and many groups of hundreds of dolphins joined the whales and the boat. It was a great day in the Santa Barbara Channel.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
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