Image: A close approach by a friendly humpback whale
2023 10-13 SB Channel
The sun shined brightly, with only a little ocean breeze, to create wonderful wildlife viewing conditions. As a bonus, the water was extremely clear which facilitated continual looks from the surface downward (for several meters). Sightings were very good: 8 humpback whales, 3000 long-beaked common dolphins and just a few California sea lions.
A spout just southwest of the Summerland oil rig line attracted us to our first pair of whales. One was identified as “Toa,” a scarred-up animal first identified in May of 2021. There was just a couple dozen dolphins in the area.
As we moved south, the pod sized increased, and, most of the whales were making 5-minute dives without changing their location much: our hypothesis is that they were feeding sub-surface.
A few miles south brought us a single whale (with dolphins), and a bit further along we encountered 3 more. Two of the trio were large adults that made several close approaches (including passing slowly under our dual hulls), causing passengers to get a little workout moving carefully from side to side.
On the trip back to the harbor we saw a much larger dolphin pod and two additional whales. One had scars all over its body as well as its flukes/flippers.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store,
Bob Perry Condor Express, and
I was on the boat and wonder if Toa is the whale whose fluke I uploaded to Happy Whale - take a look:
https://happywhale.com/individual/70;enc=422364