Image: Humpback chin-slap.
2023 05-23 SB Channel
Glassy seas. Overcast all day with drizzle in the morning. No wind. Great sightings: 9 humpback whales, 1000 long-beaked common dolphins and 1 Minke whale.
On our way towards UCSB we had some quick looks and a rather shy Minke whale. About 4 miles out from the campus, a robust herd of 700 or so dolphins was watched. A couple of miles to the west we saw signs of activity. On the scene we found 6 humpbacks and few hundred additional dolphins. Among the 6, a pair of whales was watched breaching repeatedly. Then we hit the “jackpot” whale.
For over an hour we enjoyed the various surface-active displays of one of the six whales described in the paragraph above. Its repertoire included lots of lob tailing, sideways swimming, pectoral fin slaps, a few “whole body,” aka, monster breaches, and some chin slaps (see today’s image).
Moving offshore and into The Lanes we found a cow-calf humpback pair with a third whale.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com