Image: Part of a bubble stream used by Scarlet who was attacking anchovy schools.
2023 07-27 SB Channel
Skies were sunny and bright all day due to the moderate breeze that also kept the local high temperatures quite moderate at sea. A westerly wind bump from overnight winds rolled through our neck of The Channel. Sightings were very good: 3000 long-beaked common dolphins, 9 humpback whales, 50 California sea lions, and 1 Mylar balloon (removed from the ocean surface).
About ½ hour into the trip and heading towards the Summerland oil rigs, we spent some quality time with about 200 dolphins. There were a lot of calves in this group and quite a bit of dual-purpose upside-down swimming was going on. (One purpose was to attempt to mate, the other was to hunt down individual northern anchovies).
A bit later we found ourselves about 6¾ miles off of UCSB where we eventually spent over an hour of quality time watching Scarlet, who we saw yesterday, among 9 others that were not as active. Scarlet, first seen in 2010, is easily identified by her unique prop scar that is between her blowholes and dorsal fin. The scar has some odd globular tissue masses the size of a regulation league softball. Scarlet did two unique things today: she mugged us repeatedly, AND did some “California style” bubble netting. (see today’s photograph which shows her doing this).
Note: by “California style,” (I made up that term), underwater she swam along a few edges of a sub-surface anchovy school, then attacked it, presumably. Feeding was deeper than our visual range. This was not exactly the same as we have all seen in the videos of Alaskan humpbacks surrounding a bait ball cooperatively, then lunging simultaneously through the center of the bait ball and breaking the surface.
After leaving Scarlet to her afternoon feeding, we soon found 2 more whales that followed a large pod of dolphins to some even larger surface bait balls.
On the way home we stopped to pick up a dangerous Mylar balloon, then watched even more whales and dolphins. This time a lot of sea lions were feeding too.
You never know what Mother Nature has In store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com
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