2019 02-18 SB Coast
The Condor Express ran two coastal whale watching trips today leaving the docks at 9am and 12noon. Both excursions started by heading northwest and ended up with great sightings near the mid-Channel region. Totals for the day included: 1000 long-beaked common dolphins and 2 humpback whales. Seas were quite moderate and so was the wind.
The morning trip headed up to UCSB and then ran south to the mid-Channel NOAA buoy area. Along the way several pods of dolphins located the boat and were seen feeding on the numerous large aggregations of northern anchovies on the surface. Captain Dave did slowly approach one of these large schools of bait fish and everyone got great looks at the fish as well as the dolphins.
The noon excursion worked and area east of the territory explored during the morning run. Large numbers of dolphins were encountered again, as were the anchovy concentrations. The anchovies attracted 2 hungry humpback whales, and one of them did a little surface lunge- feeding near the boat. This is a relatively rare phenomenon to witness and is always memorable (except if you are an anchovy).
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com
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