A LARGE ADULT HUMPBACK WHALE COMES TO THE SURFACE IN THE MIDDLE OF AN OCEAN HOT SPOT SURROUNDED BY VISITORS FROM NEW ZEALAND: SOOTY SHEARWATERS
2015 06-24 SB Channel
We worked the belly of the beast – the mid Santa Barbara Channel. Here we found widely distributed hot spots with humpback whales feeding deep and on the surface. Long-beaked common dolphins were everywhere including two massive megapods. Some hot spots had seabirds among which were sooty shearwaters, western gulls, Heermann’s gulls, and brown pelicans. Notably absent were the elegant terns today.
The conditions were good. There was bright sun all day and a the sea surface ranged from light to moderate chop from the west. Winds started off calm as you might expect, then started to blow, then alternately blew and backed off for a couple of hours. It was a great day for watching cetaceans.
Among the 8 humpback #whales closely watched today (with more spouts in the distance) was our long-standing friend “Rope.” She was with another, even larger, female and moved around the area starting near Habitat and ending about 5 miles south of Santa Barbara Harbor. Rope did that “chomping” at the surface behavior I’ve described in earlier reports, and I think I caught one or two of them with my camera. She still sends up that unique “fire hose” stream from her spouts once every so often.
Mostly the anchovies were below the surface, but we did get into one or two hot spots with bait balls that were up. Pelicans were crashing on these spots and the other birds clambered to gobble the scraps. The humpback whale reaction to these surface bait balls was mystifying. Once or twice there were distant vertical lunges, and, more frequently, that surface “skimming” or “chomping.” But none of the whales hit the bulls eye in terms of lunge feeding in the most dense central regions of the anchovy mass. They completely by-passed the dense spots and swam off to find new areas. Perhaps, as Sally suggested, the whales are stuffing themselves on schools of fish below the surface and thus are not so interested in the surface bait balls. The #dolphins had no such problems and attacked the core of the school with gusto.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
PS I’ll get the photos from today online as soon as possible…I’m processing them right now. Thanks.
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