Image: a humpback whale is photograph while engaged in a kelping session.
2024 06-25 SB Channel
The gorgeous weather and sea conditions continued again today in our neck of the Santa Barbara Channel. Captain Eddy and the crew ran from the harbor out to the west end of beautiful Santa Cruz Island where we have been working a whale hotspot all week. Sightings for the day included: 5 humpback whales, 1 fin whale, 10+ giant blue whales, 10 Risso’s dolphins and 1650 common dolphins.
Two pods of common dolphins located the Condor Express today. On the way out, just off of Ledbetter Beach, a small pod found us. Later, on the way home, near the Kelp Farm, a megapod surrounded us and played in our wake waves. In addition to common dolphins, when we were out with the humpback whales during our first sighting in The Lanes, a very friendly group of Risso’s dolphins played with the boat for quite a while.
We Watched an abundance of great whales today. Things got started with 3 humpbacks. It was a mother, her calf, and an escort. They were all engaged in some rolling around and kelping. (See today’s photograph for an example of kelping). Moving west a bit, after our brief friendly encounter with the Risso’s, we came upon two extremely large blue whales. They were active fluckers and made at least one close pass by the boat. Nearby, a large fin whale swam to us and the passed under our bow…another close approach. As we have all week, we found an area with spouts everywhere. Captain Eddy estimatesd 25 whales at least. We went from whale to whale and watched about 8 of them. Two more adult humpbacks were there to finish our sightings near the island.
This massive influx of great whales cannot last forever. If you had not have an opportunity to get out and see them, I highly encourage you to do so as soon as possible.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and