2021 09-24 SB Channel
Although more common in deep water beyond the Channel Islands, giant sperm whales do, on rare occasions, enter the Santa Barbara Channel. The Condor Express was extremely fortunate today to spot, identify and watch a large male sperm whale on the surface. I’ll talk more about the sighting below. SOME MAY TAKE THIS AS A GOOD OMEN FOR TOMORROW’S 8-hr WHALE WATCH EXPEDITION! We also watched: 4 humpback whales and 1 California sea lion.
Our first humpback whale sightings were near the NOAA East Channel Buoy. A pair of large humpbacks was watched, followed by a third whale that came into the zone. One member of the pair didn’t hang around and moved out of the area. The second one, however, was another story. It mugged the Condor Express for over 1 hour. Behaviors observed during this mugging included rolling around, swimming along the sides of the bot upside down, lob-tailing, lob-tailing upside down, waving its long pectoral fins in the air and resting in the stream of our jets. We’ve been mugged a lot recently, but this was a really good interaction. Oh, and to add some whimsy to this mugging, everywhere the friendly beast went, it was followed closely by an equally friendly California sea lion.
Dave headed for the western sea cliffs of beautiful Santa Cruz Island and was in the 1-mile wide traffic separation zone between the inbound and outbound commercial cargo ships when he spotted a single spout. Was it another humpback? The blow was not as tall and it was directed forward at an angle. As he got within clear visual range it was, indeed, a sperm whale on the surface! The mighty cachalote was up for quite a few breaths before it slowly sank back into the deep, not to be seen by us again. WOW!
A tour of the aforementioned sea cliffs and grottos along the north face of the island ended with a nice trip inside the outer chamber of the world’s longest sea cave, the Painted Cave. On the way home we found our 4th humpback whale.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com
THERE ARE STILL A FEW SPOTS LEFT!
A sperm whale in the Channel today, and we had wonderful sights further offshore (we were several miles south of San Miguel Island at one point) on our special 8-hour whale watch last month, Captain Dave is going to do it again! We’ll have plenty to time to explore every nook and cranny known to cetaceans and look for pelagic birds along the way.
Make your reservations now: Saturday, September 25 – 8am to 4pm
My report from the August trip is here:
All day trip with killer whales etc etc
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