2022 10-16 SB Channel It was the first day this week that began under bright and sunny skies. We could see some stratus down towards Ventura, but we were going the other way. There was a light breeze on the water which made it easier to see whale spouts. Sightings for the day included 13 humpback whales, 8000 long becoming dolphins and 400 California sea lions. Not far off shore, we ran into our first mega pod of at least 1000 dolphins. They were quite a few cow-calf pairs and we enjoyed watching the little guys leaping alongside mom. Further out, about 5 miles from the harbor, we encountered large hotspots. We spotted a single humpback whale then four more. One of the four did quite a bit of tail throwing at a distance from the boat. Also in the same area was a mother humpback whale with her calf +1/ third larger whale and follow them around. All the hotspots today had a moderate number of California sea lions in the mix. About 6 miles south of Hope Ranch we found another mega part of at least 2000 dolphins plus more see lions. At 11:30 AM we found another half pack well they joined the tail thrower that we saw previously. Is it moved away and has it ran alongside us and did some of that open mouth surface topping followed by massive bubble streams. Most of us believe this is some sort of Whale equivalent of the water pick for flossing the little bits and pieces out of the baleen and keeping things clean. Might make a good steady for someone, surely a PhD thesis is there for the taking. 20 minutes later we saw the single pack and then a pair. They were moving around with the dolphins but we didn’t see much in the way of lunch feeding today. A bit after 12 noon Captain Davis put aside a large mega pod of dolphins performed along horseshoe shape. There was easily 4000 more dolphins in this area. California sea lions were here too. But… No wells here. On the way home, another mega pod of common dolphins with birds all around. You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com
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