Image: A plethora of giant blue whales. If you click to enlarge, and look closely, you will see lots of tall spouts and… lots of blue patches from barely submerged giants.
2024 06-22 SB Channel
Captain Dave and the crew produced an adventure near the northwest end of beautiful Santa Cruz Island. Today we found dense, zero visibility, on the deck, fog for most of the trip. As we got closer to the island, the fog lifted up a little bit for lateral visibility. Finally, as if carefully orchestrated by Mother Nature, when we got on the whales, it became sunny. Sightings for the day included: 12+ giant blue whales, 1 fin whale, 350 common dolphins and 1 ocean sunfish (Mola mola).
On the first leg of the adventure, from Santa Barbara Harbor to the lanes, there were three groups of dolphins with about 50 animals in each one. We had good looks. Soon after, we watched a medium-sized ocean sunfish (Mola mola) on the surface.
There were at least 8 giant blue whales in the first area that we stopped. There was also 1 fin whale here. The fog was dense. Most of the sightings took place because we literally sat in one spot and listened for the sound of spouts and saw footprints on the water surface. As previously stated, the fog raised up about 100 feet off the deck during this sighting. As one looked out across the water there were tall spouts everywhere. (See today’s photograph for an example).
A larger pod of 200 dolphins swam by.
On the way home, we came into a small patch of bright sun. Here we found 4 additional blue whales. There is no doubt that the prevalence of a giant mass of sub surface grill has attracted the attention of the Giants to the channel. What a wonderful way to get the summer season started.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
コメント