2022 10-22 SB Channel
Captain Devin and the crew navigated today with wonderful weather and sea conditions today, partly cloudy skies, no wind, and flat seas. Sightings were exceptional: 15+ humpback whales, 3000 long-beaked common dolphins and 50 California sea lions.
A single humpback whale, six miles outside the harbor, kicked-off the extreme mammal show. This was a logging beast, the rest of the day included more active whales. Common dolphins were here, at this point, to inaugurate the sightings of huge pods seen all day.
After moving a short distance to the west, 2nd Captain Kelly spotted numerous whale spouts and we pointed the boat in their direction. Yay, Kelly! Devin summarizes the massively rich hot spot that was found: 25+ humpbacks in the area and we closely watched 15+. There were single whales, pairs, trios and even a quad-pod or two. All were moving around, feeding sub-surface. Thus, the reliability of population counts was not 100%, as many individual humpbacks surely came by the Condor Express more than once.
Although feeding preoccupation was the main “behavior,” an instance of surface “chomping” was also logged. (We are hypothesizing, with scant evidence, that this may be a baleen-washing behavior, FYI). A few trumpet vocalizations were heard, and several close approaches occurred, as previously mentioned. With so many cetaceans around, the day was definitely exceptional.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com
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