Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “gray whales”
Epic conditions & Epic sightings After 17 days of waiting for the Harbor to be re-opened, the Condor Express ran 3 whale watch trips today (9am, 12noon, 3pm) with spectacular conditions. It was a bright sunny day with temperatures in Santa Barbara in the 80’s. There was little to no wind and the sea surface was flat. What a …
Gray whales and a lot of dolphins Not far out of Santa Barbara Harbor the Condor Express played with a group of at least 1,500 common dolphins. As usual, these friendly cetaceans rode the bow, surfed the wake, and generally dazzled and delighted everyone on board. Next we ran across the to world famous Painted Cave on Santa Cruz Island, …
Mirror Glass, Many Mammal Species and a pair of Bald Eagles Today A tiny bit of haze but extremely glassy conditions again today on the Santa Barbara Channel as the Condor Express motored out for another adventure packed trip full of unexpected surprises. The first surprise of the day was a big pod of 15 or more elusive Dall’s …
Five Gray Whales Although it was glassy and nice near Santa Barbara Harbor, it was not far offshore that the winds kicked up and we had blown-out whitecaps and spray. Nonetheless the keen eyes of our crew located two gray whales not far off the north face of Santa Cruz Island. Turning east to follow along on the migration route …
Killer day in the Santa Barbara Channel An all time epic or “killer” day in the Santa Barbara Channel As the Condor Express headed south out of Santa Barbara Harbor we were met with a mill pond flat glass sea surface, no wind and long sleeve tee shirt weather. The water was clear and blue, and the above water vistas …
Stunning sightings of gray whales at Santa Cruz Island We zipped across a rather choppy Santa Barbara Channel with a few white caps today, on our way towards the very fertile whale grounds of Santa Cruz Island. We played briefly with 4 Dall’s porpoises around the middle of the Channel. The great news is that once we were within a …
Killer whales lead the list of 6 different marine mammal species today. According to https://orcasoftheworld.wordpress.com Bigg’s killer whales were formerly known as ‘transients’. In 2012, a push was made to rename this type of killer whale in memory of Dr. Michael Bigg (1939–1990). Bigg’s killer whales range all along the west coast of North America, from California to Alaska. They …
Two “Wrong Way Corrigan” Gray Whales and More You may have heard the story of Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan who, back in the day, was supposed to fly from New York to Long Beach, California. He landed in Ireland claiming heavy clouds and navigational errors. Well today we had two “Wrong Way Corrigan” gray whales. This is the time of …
Two mid-Santa Barbara Channel gray whales and more We ran south heading offshore and ran smack into a nice herd of long beaked common dolphins. The were heading east in super clear, blue water. After some nice playtime, we continued east-southeast and quickly came upon two southbound gray whales. This is pretty far off the beach an no where near …
Across to beautiful Santa Cruz Island we went today, and it was clear enough to see all 4 of the Channel Islands. At the mid-Channel point we encountered 5 wonderful little Dall’s Porpoise and circled around with them a few times. This is our first Dall’s sighting of the Winter. About 3 miles north of the island we ran alongside …