2020 08-06 SB Channel
Summer blues festival is tons of fun!
The high marine layer stratus was with us most of the day today except out in the land of the giants near the western end of Santa Cruz Island. The cetacean hotspot featured blue skies, blue water and blue whales. Sightings included 6+ giant blue whales, 1500 long-beaked common dolphins, 300 short-beaked common dolphins, 50 offshore bottlenose dolphins and 1 ocean sunfish (Mola mola).
Common dolphins were with us all day long including crossing the Santa Barbara Channel both coming and going. Even the land of the giants was rich with these small agile cetaceans. Our first contact with this animal was not far out from the beach. Larger numbers found the Condor Express near The Lanes where a nice pod of highly animated, leaping short-beaks was in the mix. A third species of dolphin, the larger offshore bottlenose, was observed on our trip home.
The giants were just a bit east of the world-famous Painted Cave and 4 or 5 miles north of the island. Six were closely watched but, per usual, loads of additional tall spouts were seen further to the east of our location. Most of the six we followed were singletons, but one closely-tied pair synchronized their dive cycles and came up close near the boat on one or two occasions. Also present in this region full of feeding blue whales, a large ocean sunfish (Mola mola) was observed.
Our streak of quality blue whale and dolphin sightings has continued since mid-July. If you have not paid these wonderful animals a visit, make your plans now.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com
Comments