A rare confab with 20 feeding Minke whales and more.
- Bob Perry
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Image: a small group of California sea lions is shown rafting inside a drifting, detached, floating, giant kelp paddy.
2026 08–07 SB Channel
If you’ve been a regular reader of my reports this week you know that we’ve had a streak of great weather, and it continued today. Skies were sunny, the ocean surface was glassy, and the water was crystal clear. Today we closely watched 50 common dolphins, 20 Minke whales, 1 humpback whale, 3 coastal bottlenose dolphins and 10 California sea lions. Once again all the action was in the SE Channel.
After passing through the offshore oil platforms close to the Harbor, and SE of Platform Habitat , we found a small pod of common dolphins. We were heading SE, and they were in travel mode heading W away from our destination. We watched the dolphins for a short while and enjoyed seeing them in the crystal blue water.
We moved on to a rich area NW of platform Grace. There were a few small birdnados, and lots of birds… but no dolphins this time. The feeding here was being done mostly by a large group of at least 20 Minke whales. Their feeding was subsurface and they surfaced for Air all around the Condor Express. Sometimes the species can be a bit shy, but evidently feeding is not one of those times. We also observed a group of California sea lions relaxing in the middle of a giant kelp paddy. (See today’s photograph for an example).
After a while a single, very small humpback whale came through the zone. Our friend Susanne was on board today and was able to identify it. It’s happywhale.com designation is CRC- 23831. The youngster was first spotted in May of this year and this was the fourth time it was ever recorded.
Our multitalented deck hand Isabel helped remove 2 “happy birthday” balloons from the ocean surface.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
