Image: a sailing vessel in Santa Barbara Channel fog.
2024 08-08 SB Channel
FOG has been a months-long regime in the Santa Barbara Channel this year. Captain Dave and the crew AGAIN reported dense fog, with near zero visibility, all day and all locations visited during the otherwise very successful whale watching expedition today. For those of you that may be curious, here is a link that explains coastal fog, with data that suggests things are actually becoming far less foggy these days and it will continue to be less foggy in the future:
Taking the dense fog into consideration, here are the amazing statistics for closely watched species today: 6+ giant blue whales, 600 common dolphins, 2 Minke whales and 1 “special” California sea lion.
We found fewer, dolphin pods with fewer individuals per pod. A few hundred were first encountered 1 mile off Shoreline Drive. A few more small pods appeared when we were out near the whales, and then a surprising pod of about 300 found us in the fog on the way home.
As we were heading out, we also encountered 2 Minke whales, about 1 mile apart. Somehow we followed the first one for two surface intervals in the fog, the second one was just a quick look as we drove by.
As our slow trek through the fog continued out to the whale grounds, at one point passengers began to shout and point. Captain Dave slowed down even more, and through the fog and the mist it turned out to be a single California sea lion. The animal was obviously curious, perhaps evaluating whether it could haul out safely, or perhaps garner an anchovy being tossed. So it followed us for a while before we had to move on and continue our slow quest for the big mammals. We have no idea if there were any more sea lions around.
Out on the grounds, we were able to closely watch 6 different giant blue whales. For reference, most of these were located by the crew using sound. A fog environment is very quiet, so the crew had to listen carefully to hear the blow of the world’s biggest spouts and very slowly navigate accordingly. Of course, we have every reason to believe that there were a lot more than six blue whales in the area based on previous observations. Luckily for us the whales have been working together probably due to the fact that krill schools are condensed.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and