Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “Mola mola”
Humpback Whales, Minke Whales and lots of Common Dolphins pervaded the northeastern Santa Barbara Channel today. Captain Mat ran east, as has been our custom these past weeks, to find calm seas, sunny skies and abundant cetaceans. Our trip today took us out to the “rig line,” that line up of 7 offshore oil platforms you see offshore between Carpenteria …
Hot spot hopping in the Santa Barbara Channel. Winds and warnings were up for the west end of the Channel today which kind of dictated Captain Dave’s course. He wisely opted out of beating up the people in heavy seas for the possibility of finding yesterday’s whales up near San Miguel Island. Instead he went “hot spot hopping.” Now this …
Coastal and west island action. Today we had great marine mammal sightings along the coast and again to the far west near Santa Rosa Island, with nothing to see in between. The day started off about a mile and a half outside the Santa Barbara Harbor entrance when Captain Dave decided to take a look-see at some birds and common …
Tie score: Mysticetes 2 vs Odontocetes 2. Although there were rumors of both Risso’s dolphins and Minke whales in the Channel today, we did not see either of those two species, and so the final score card was a tie. There was a light chop and breeze plus overcast skies as we left Santa Barbara Harbor for the mid Channel …
It isn’t often that anyone can surpass the super-human whale spotting abilities of Captain Mat and Captain Dave, but today was different. We were out on the south side of the Channel whale watching in moderately rough seas along the subsurface island shelf break known as “The Ledge.” Captain Mat was using all his God given talent and training, but …
It was mirror, mill pond glass on the Channel today and the sun came out after we ran south about an hour. We picked up several small pods of common dolphins as we passed through the north side and beyond the shipping lanes heading in the general direction of Santa Cruz Island. The sharp eyes of Captain Mat were aided …
Twas yet another north Channel day full of little hot spots with dolphins and seabirds and a total of 7 humpback whales. As we moved around the area most of the whales were either traveling or feeding below the surface. We had great looks at these big cetaceans as they did their “thang.” The dolphins were also either feeding actively …
Captain Mat kept the Condor Express on the north side of the Santa Barbara Channel today for some of the best whale watching in southern California. There was a light breeze, slight chop and overcast sky as we headed out today, but things quickly turned to zero wind, glassy seas and partly sunny. As has been the case for the …
I knew it was going to be a good day today when Debbie the naturalist pointed out an adult osprey perched right next to the Condor Express on a post at the small boat landing ramp. It posed, looked down, looked up, spread its wings…a very cooperative raptor. This was a special sight to behold. After clearing the Harbor, Eric …
Though we plied the Santa Barbara Channel from the mid Channel buoy eastward to Scorpion and back again, we “only” observed one humpback whale today. I put “only” in quotes because today was a day of QUALITY versus QUANTITY. Here’s the story. About 4 miles out from Santa Barbara Harbor on a southerly course heading we saw a single humpback …