Image: Thysanoessa spinifera, krill from the Santa Barbara Channel as viewed under a low powered microscope. Note: Live specimens in natural light are much redder. These were photographed using backlighting in my laboratory.
2024 06-11 SB Channel
Massive amounts of subsurface grill near the East End of beautiful Santa Cruz Island are resulting in huge numbers of giant baleen whales. Sea conditions were ideal…a mirror glass surface and a light overcast sky. It one of our best trips of the year so far. Total sightings for closely-watched mammals: 10 giant blue whales, 10 fin whales, 6 humpback whales, 500 common dolphins, and a handful of California sea lions.
Just outside the Harbor, a mini birdnado brought us to a very small pod of dolphins and some California sea lions feeding on bait near the surface. We continued south towards the Island. South of The Lanes near Prisoner’s Harbor we had an initial sighting of one Fin whale and one humpback whale to get us started. The small/juv fin whale did not take any deep dives and spent a lot of time cruising/snorkelling just beneath the surface. We move southeast about a mile and a half.
Here we encountered the aforementioned huge numbers of giant baleen whales. Judging from the bright red deposits that were being left behind, it was a fair conclusion to assume they were feeding on krill beneath the surface. In this area there were at least 25 whales that continually dove down, came to the surface, swam around a little bit and were all generally mixed together. This mix included humpback whales, giant blue whales, and fin whales. There were more of all these species in the area that we did not have time to watch.
Upon arriving at the whale zone, one giant blue whale dove down and immediately five more moved towards us. At one point a trio of fin whales came very close to the boat and swam underneath the bow. Per usual, the champion for tail fluking was the humpback species.
On the way home we stopped for some quick looks at a blue whale mother with her calf. A little bit further along we found two large adult humpback whales busy kelping. One of them did a large spy hop. Closer to home, just past the kelp farm, we found a megapod of dolphins.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
Fabulous!