10 humpbacks and some great dolphining
- Bob Perry
- 2 minutes ago
- 2 min read
2026 04–24 SB Channel
Two trips, 9 A and 12 N, ran out to the buoy to find a nice humpback activity zone. Conditions: clear, calm, and no wind.
The morning got off to a great start when we encountered 20 coastal bottlenose dolphins right outside the harbor and followed them into the East Beach Anchorage. They weren’t particularly interested in riding our waves, but there were some nice calves in the mix. Always good to see.
Out near the buoy the whale show began with 1 that had extremely long dives, it suddenly came to the surface and began logging. In fact it logged right past the Condor Express so everybody had amazing views. About 1/4 mile away we found 3 additional whales.
On the way home we found a small pod of common dolphins that were spread out over a wide area. These were actively surfing our bow, side, and stern waves.
Captain Dave ran directly towards the buoy on the noon excursion. We didn’t spend much time with the first whale because it was very shy and had long dive times. There were 3 additional shy whales nearby, but 1 of them snapped out of it. It threw its tail around and did some lob-tailing (see today's photograph for an example). After the brief tail exercising, the Whales shifted in a travel mode and disappeared to the E.
A much larger pod of common dolphins, traveling in a tight pack, greeted us on our way home, just outside the Harbor.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
NOTE: our friend Susanne was on board today and was able to identify 2 of the humpback whales on the morning trip, and one humpback whale from the afternoon trip. I will give you their designated ID numbers as well as information, so you can look them up using happywhale.com at your convenience.
MORNING
CRC-16139
Has been recorded 26 times. The first time was in 2014 from California. It traveled as far south has Zihuatanejo, Mexico, it has been recorded 16 times from Monterey Bay California.
CRC-19979
It’s name is Kink, and was first recorded in 2021 in California. I provided information about this whale a couple of days ago when we saw it.
AFTERNOON
HW-MN0503907
This individual only been seen once before, in September 2025, when our deckhand Isabel recorded it here in the Santa Barbara channel on board the Condor Express.
