A beautiful sunny day with a humpback and a wonderful pod of offshore bottlenose dolphins.
- Bob Perry
- 2 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Image: some high-flying bottlenose dolphins.
2026 08–17 SB Channel
Captain Eddy and the crew circumnavigated the W-Central channel today. Our course took us W along the coast, then S offshore to the lanes, back to E, and finally N, ending up near the Summerland oil platforms. It was sunny all day. Seas were calm. There was a light breeze and water clarity remains excellent. Sightings: 300 common dolphins, 60 offshore bottlenose dolphins and 1 humpback whale.
2 Miles off the Mesa we spent quality time with 200 common dolphins that were moving E (we were trying to head W).
After a bit of driving, we were just S of the lanes where we had a nice long interaction with 60 offshore bottlenose dolphins. They were very acrobatic and, per usual, also aerial (See today’s photo above for an example). There were quite a few calves in the pod.
Nearby we found a single juvenile whale. It was moving W inside the lanes. It made several very close passes, within 10 feet, along our port side.
After watching it for quite a while, we were being approached by large commercial tanker. Even though it looked like the whale was going to avoid a collision by itself, Eddy alerted the captain and everybody kept a sharp eye out.
On the way home, near the Summerland rigs, we encountered another pod of dolphins.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
