A large concentration of humpback whales off Hope Ranch.
- Bob Perry
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Image: a pair of humpback whale tails in the Santa Barbara channel.
2026 06–20 SB Channel
A tale of 2 trips: the morning was calm and glassy; the afternoon featured a moderate breeze. Once again all the action was very close to home, perhaps 3 or 4 miles off of Hope Ranch. Sightings were phenomenal: 11 humpback Whales (we closely watched 10), and 5000+ common dolphins.
We were just a few miles outside the Harbor, adjacent to Hope Ranch, when we encountered 2 single juvenile humpback whales along with several aggregations of common dolphins. The 2 whales appeared to be feeding sub-surface, which became the theme of the day… all the whales we watched were doing the same thing. By the way, the aggregations of dolphins were continued all day, some of them were quite large.
There were spouts everywhere, and we noticed that almost all of the whales were single, except for a pair of large adults. The big adults were good at showing their tails (see today’s photo for an example). It was a great day to watch the individual whales as they came and went, sometimes close to the boat, sometimes a little bit further out.
One note of concern: at the very end of the trip one of our last sightings was of a whale that was acting a little funny…a bit sluggish. As Captain Dave maneuvered the Condor Express for a closer look, it became obvious the whale was entangled and some sort of commercial fishing net around its tail. Luckily, Dave heads up an entanglement rescue team here in Santa Barbara and his team will head out first thing tomorrow.
On the way home we saw a single breach in the distance, but did not have time to stop and explore it further.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
