6 individual juvenile humpback whales surrounded by 4000 common dolphins

Image: a humpback whale makes a very close pass by the Condor Express in the Santa Barbara Channel.

2026 06–25 SB Channel

The morning “June gloom” continued today, and right on schedule, it got sunny in the late afternoon. The seas were calm. Captain Dave and the crew ran a little further SE today, until we were about 5 miles N of Anacapa passage. This is where the action was today. Sightings included: 6 humpback whales, and 4000 common dolphins.

The first of many birdnados was near Santa Barbara oil and gas platform Alpha (see yesterday’s report). This spot had several small pods of actively-feeding dolphins. Per usual, Dave spent some time talking about this famous oil platform.

As we continued on course, we found even more dolphins with a birdnado near platform Habitat. We witnessed 3 individual, juvenile, humpback whales here. All of the whales today were pretty actively feeding sub-surface, so they were up for a short time only. We saw a couple of unexpected, random, close-approaches to the Condor Express. (See today’s photo for an example). This is the kind of thing that can send chills down your spine.

2 miles later, and near the furthest extent of our track today, there were 3 additional, individual, juvenile, humpback whales. We observed lots of dolphins, another birdnado, and “everybody” was feeding below the surface.

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

marinebiophotography.com

NOTE

Our friend, photographer, and happywhale.com citizen scientist, Susanne, identified 4 of the individual whales by their tail patterns. Here are identification numbers and some preliminary information about each. Remember, all of them were juveniles so the number of sightings for each may be a bit low compared to other records you have heard about here.

HW-MN0503766

This whale has been previously recorded 6 times, 5 of them in the Santa Barbara Channel. It was first observed in May of last year, and the last time it was recorded, before today, was in September of last year. It has traveled from Santa Barbara Channel in the north, as far as South as Malibu California.

CRC-22689

There are 13 records in the database for this juvenile. 3 of them were from the Santa Barbara Channel. It was first recorded in August 2024, and it’s last record was May of this year. It has ranged from Morro Bay, California in the north, to Baja de Los Angeles, in the sea of Cortez, BCS, Mexico, to the south.

CRC-23138

This humpback has 13 records in the database and 4 of them were in the Santa Barbara Channel, which was also its northernmost sighting. It was first seen in May of last year and the last time it was recorded, before today, was June of last year. It has traveled as far south as San Diego, California.

HW-MN0503830

First identified in July of last year in the Santa Barbara Channel, there are 7 records in the database for this juvenile. 4 of them were from Santa Barbara. It has traveled as far south as Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico, which is the last recorded sighting of it from January of this year. 

Special thanks to Susanne for all of her great work.