Abundant whales and two species of dolphins

2019 11-16 SB Channel

Skies were sunny and bright. Seas were calm, although a few rollers scraped the northern face of the island during our tour. Sightings were great: 1500 long-beaked common dolphins, 250 short-beaked common dolphins and 8 humpback whales.

North of The Lanes we located an area rich with long-beaked dolphins and 5 actively feeding humpbacks. These whales had long down times, perhaps due to the depth of the bait balls. Surface intervals featured loads of nice tail flukes though.

The Santa Cruz Island tour included a trip inside the outer chamber of the world-famous Painted Cave. As previously mentioned, there was a long period swell that rolled around the walls of the island and The Cave, perhaps nature’s way of circulating the bird droppings.

On our way home from The Cave we were entertained by a very active pod of short-beaked dolphins. They were very aerial today including high-flying leaps and some nice tail-walking demonstrations. Short-beaks are not quite a common this far to the northwest, so it was a particularly nice sighting.

You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com