Humpbacks a-Plenty
Three whale watch trips were conducted today with decent conditions and sunny skies throughout most of the day. This is apparently the lull that occurs every year in the northbound gray whale migration. A decline in the numbers of gray whales observed daily, as the majority of the population has past our region en route to Alaskan waters, precedes an increase in sightings as the mothers with their calves are the last to pass by. Meanwhile, as we wait a few days for the cows and calves, we have humpbacks a-plenty to make our trips exciting. Although 10 humpback whales were observed today, most in the eastern Santa Barbara Channel, the crew of the Condor Express reported many many more spouts in the vicinity. Under the sunny skies huge anchovy bait balls were spotted and hundreds of sea birds and common dolphins were observed feeding…as we have reported frequently of late. While most of the day the humpback whales were seen moving around, fluking up and there were breaches in the distance, it was on the 3pm afternoon trip that the big whales joined the rest of the animals and were seen surface lunge feeding. Many of these feeding lunges were straight up and down, and several were very close to the boat. It was a spectacular day of sightings.
Tomorrow we will have public whale watch trips at 9am and 12 noon. You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry Condor Express
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