A mixture of the beasts: fin whales and blue whales.

Image: Something new today! How about a patchwork quilt of giant blue whales at beautiful Santa Cruz Island? 

2026 05–18 SB Channel

Hallelujah! The weather and sea conditions improved drastically today and we experienced bright sun, glassy seas, and only a very light bump from the W. Captain Eddy and the crew took a SW course out towards the buoy, then moved SE to a hotspot located N of beautiful Chinese Harbor, Santa Cruz Island. 

Sightings for the day: 12 giant whales which included close encounters with 3 blue whales and 3 fin whales. (6 additional nearby spouting giants could not be identified as we ran out of time).  We also watched 50 common dolphins.

Our first cetacean encounter was 5 miles outbound from Santa Barbara Harbor. It was a small pod of about 50 common dolphins. They were playful, and captain Eddy ran the Condor in circles so they could better demonstrate their body surfing championship skills.

Our first encounter with a giant was SE of the buoy where we found a very large, adult,fin whale that had long surface times. We had wonderful looks enhanced by the glassy conditions.

After our move over to Chinese Harbor, we found a pair of giant blue whales that made a couple of close passes by the boat. At this location, the water clarity was superb and we could see the bright blue streak of the beasts when they were underwater. 

A pair of additional fin whales came to the surface very close to us. What a nice surprise. Again, we had a fantastic encounter. A short distance away brought us to our last close observation of a blue whale. This one was an especially good tail fluker, probably because it was showing off its wonderful flukes. It was a great end to a wonderful day.

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

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