Krill banquet continues…and more!
500 common dolphins greeted the Condor Express about 5 miles outside Santa Barbara Harbor today. After playing with them, we continued on to the southeastern feeding grounds to find more humpback whales than we had time for. this is a good problem to have. Although “only” 6 humpbacks were watched closely (more on their behaviors in a minute), there were at least 12 more in the immediate area. Now the 6 we did have time to fully enjoy seemed to split their time in half. About half the time the were doing sideways surface lunge feeding on the abundant krill, and the other half of the time the dove down for about 7 minutes on average. After diving, they tended to log on the surface for quite a while including numerous such loggings right next to the boat. One of the humpbacks did a “head stand,” remaining motionless with its head underwater and most of its body vertical and exposed out of the water. All around the feeding area there were another 750 common dolphins passing by all day. The sea conditions were excellent and the morning fog quickly gave way to sunny skies making the blue water very sparkling and nice. On the way back home there was a huge Mola mola (ocean sunfish) that we watched.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.. Bob Perry Condor Express
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