11 Humpback Whales Take Turns With Behaviors
Captain Eric ran the Condor Express to the southeastern Santa Barbara Channel today and found a “mother lode” of very highly animated humpback whales. There were 11 #whales all together, and if you think this was all about quantity, let me tell you about the quality of the sightings today. Among the 11 humpbacks there were two mother-calf pairs (one pair was Scarlet and Shorty). Even though the youngsters were highly active and went on breaching, rolling, pectoral and tail fin slapping, it was the giant adults today that seemed to follow the lead of the youngsters. One big whale came up out of no where and got airborne very close to the Condor, the whole body was out of the water, and, as Eric tells it, before splashing down the whale spouted mid air, opened its mouth, showed its baleen, and then slammed its chin on the water first…followed by the rest of the 40 ton body. This was repeated 7 or 8 times and I believe our pal Dino posted a video of all this on the Condor Express FaceBook page. Thanks, Dino! All the whales got into the act with breaching, slapping fins, rolling and being friendly with the boat. It was “off the charts” fun. Also in the area we had at least 500 long beaked common dolphins. Wow.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express