Again we saw great action from 30 humpbacks

Image: A humpback whale swims around on its side during a socialization session.

2025 09–10 SB Channel

Captain Eddy and the crew ran a circular route today. They headed SW directly towards the buoy, where they found a lot of action, then turned E for just a short while and finally looped N to the harbor. Skies were clear and sunny all day. It was glassy most of the day, in the afternoon there was a gentle breeze. Total sightings: 30 humpback whales (we closely watched 25), 6000 common dolphins and 100 California sea lions.

The hotspot started off with one big birdnado, and eventually stretched southwest about 2 1/2 miles from the farm towards the buoy. There were spouts everywhere, mostly pairs and trios. One of the earlier trios got into the birdnado and did a bit of side lung feeding, then proceeded to socialize. There was a lot of vocalization, rolling around, pec slapping, sideways swimming (see today’s photo for an example ) and body touching. As this was going on, they were slowly drifting SW. The initial birdnado area had about 3000 dolphins. Close by there was another 2000 with some additional whales.

We watched a pair of whales for 90 minutes as they mugged the Condor Express. They were very close on the left side, swam under the boat and got very close on the right side. This went on multiple times. In addition to staying motionless right under the bow and looking at the passengers, there was one instance where the whales swam way out in front of the boat, turned around, and then headed right at us.

Our talented deck hand, Isabel, got a good photo of one of the whales that had a marvelous white tail fluke. With a little bit of HappyWhale research, she determined the name of this whale was "golf ball." Apparently got its name from the size of a giant barnacle on its dorsal fan. The whale has been recorded near San Francisco, Monterey Bay, Catalina, Orange County and Cabo San Lucas. Today appears to be the first record of the whale in the Santa Barbara Channel.

On the way home, just before we turned north, there was another 1000 common dolphins that played with the boat.

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

condorexpressphotos.com

NOTE: Isabel's whale is CRC-15698 If you would like to look it up on happywhale.com