2016 03-31 SB Channel
Two trips left Santa Barbara today, I had the good fortune to be on board for the 12 noon excursion. It was a sunny, clear day with just a trace of wind to make the glassy ocean surface sparkle a little bit. The wildlife was spectacular. Here is the breakdown:
12 noon We were heading SXSE when spouts were seen and soon confirmed to be a trio of northbound gray whales. These were medium large animals and they stayed in a tightly packed formation for the 40-minute duration of the sighting. The three were very cooperative with short down times and long surface times. We started the sighting just north of the infamous Platform Alpha and ended north of the Mesa.
Around 135 pm tall spouts were spotted by deck hand Tasha with her magic eyes (and binoculars). This turned out to be a large, widespread area with numerous humpback whales of which we chose the nearest four to watch. The humpbacks had medium long down times, good surface times, and fluked-up many times. Just like the PacLife ad on TV. Two separate groups of about 100 each long-beaked common dolphins meandered past us while we were engaged with the knobby headed big cetaceans. On the way home, just outside the Harbor, we played with about 25 Pacific white-sided dolphins.
3 pm The late afternoon excursion took up where we left off with the humpback whales. Now they were feeding humpbacks. There where were 5 of them and some surface anchovy bait balls had formed here and there. A couple of very dramatic vertical surface lunge feeding episodes were seen by the whale fans on board the Condor Express. One of the five whales was our old pal “Scarlet,” who is a large female easily identified by a deep propeller scar across her back that also left spherical tumors or masses of tissue. Other than this physical skin deformity, she has appeared to be very healthy and active over the past years. About 100 long-beaked common dolphins came in to feed toward the end of this sighting.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express
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