2015 05-23 SB Channel
Captain Dave and the crew of the Condor Express worked their magic today and whale fans experienced a series of miraculous encounters with extremely friendly and animated humpback whales. It was a sunny day with calm seas and Dave steered a course for The Flats, where all the action had been these past few days. The Flats had its hot spots with feeding sea birds, long-beaked common #dolphins (over 3,000), and #whales.
There is a slang expression used up and down the coast, in case you are new to this blog and local whale watching. The term is mugged, and it refers to a whale behavior in which it comes up so close to the boat that it can (but rarely does) touch the boat with its flippers. Today we got mugged and mugged again. There were at least 14 friendly humpback whales, and during our time on the hot spot, practically all of them got up close and personal. Scarlet was there again today.
One unusual thing about today’s massive muggings: one adult whale mugged the boat with a partner. It then went off for a few minutes then came back and mugged us again with a new partner. This was repeated 4 or 5 times as if the lead whale was introducing the second to the whole process. “C’mon over here and take a look at these humans.”
One mother humpback and her calf got started tail-lobbing, rolling over, exposing pectoral fins…and repeated this 30 or 40 times. It was indeed a magical day.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
Today’s photo was taken by the Condor crew using an iPhone
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