A prolific day with about 3000 individual cetaceans of 4 different species.

Image: a pair of Risso’s dolphins, including a mother (seen underwater) with her tiny newborn calf, poking its head out of the water.

2026 06–06 SB Channel

Captain Dave and the crew reported another gray day that was mostly calm but with a long period ground swell. There was a fresh breeze in the afternoon. Our course took us S out to the buoy and into the separation zone. Sightings were very good today: 2500 common dolphins, 4 humpback whales (we closely watched 3), 150 Risso’s dolphins, and 6 offshore bottlenose dolphins. 

Several SB-5 birdnados popped up in a rich area 2 miles SE of Santa Barbara Harbor. In addition to sooty shearwaters, brown pelicans, terns, gulls, and cormorants, there were several moderate sized pods of common dolphins feeding in the area. We would see these types of pods all day long, no matter where we went. There were 2 individual juvenile humpback whales here. One of them had exceedingly long dive times and traveled a great distance when submerged. Captain Dave made the executive decision to stay with the more cooperative whale. It was slowly traveling E and feeding subsurface. It was good about showing its tail flukes which enabled our fluke experts, Susanne, Mark and Isabel to identify this individual. Please see note at the end of the report.

After traveling up the coast we found several more birdnados in the area, with lots more dolphins. There were 2 more individual, juvenile humpbacks here. We had one look at the first whale, started heading SE, when Mark spotted a second whale in the distance behind us. We could never saw it again. 

The final encounter of the day was epic. We were 4 miles SE of the buoy, in the separation zone. We spotted lots of tall dorsal fins in the distance, leading some people to falsely conclude they might be killer whales. However, upon arriving on the scene, we found at least 150 Risso’s dolphins spread out in small groups over 1 mile of water. There were several small Risso’s calves with their mothers. (See today’s photo for an example of this). Some of the Risso’s engaged in aerial activity such as partial breaches, shallow jumping, and head slaps. Upon closer inspection there were at least 6 offshore bottlenose dolphins mixed in… as often happens.

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

condorexpressphotos.com

Note:  the first whale of the trip was identified as HW-MN0503833 using happywhale.com  It was previously recorded only 4 times, and only in the Santa Barbara Channel. It’s first sighting was in June of last year, and the most recent record, prior to today, was in September of last year. Special thanks to our deckhand Isabel, our friend Mark, and also Susanne who took the time to provide this background information.