Birdnados attract humpbacks, dolphins, as well as a thresher shark and blue sharks.
- Bob Perry
- 24 minutes ago
- 2 min read
2026 02–07 SB Channel
Captain Eddy and the crew ran out to the SW and looped around the buoy. Seas were calm. Skies were partly sunny. The ocean was glassy in the morning until a light breeze picked up later. Totals: 2000 common dolphins, 1 common thresher shark, 9 humpback whales (3 of them were repeats, seen on the way out and on the way back), 150 California sea lions and 3 blue sharks. In addition, deckhand Aspen retrieved 2 deflated, floating, Mylar balloons from the ocean surface.
West of the rigs, in what used to be the kelp farm, Aspen picked up the first balloon just before we got into our first of several large birdnados. (See today’s photo for an example). It appeared that the anchovy schools were just below the surface, but well within the range of diving pelicans. All this action attracted a megapod of common dolphins, and a large group of hungry California sea lions.
Soon thereafter we watched a total of 5 juvenile humpback whales. They showed tail flukes (see note below), but spent most of the time chasing birdnados and dolphins. The whales also appeared to feed sub-surface and quickly decimated the anchovy hotspots. All the action also attracted a single, very large common thresher shark. We had quick looks at a couple of tail thrashes before it dove. An amazing site for sure!
Our trip around the buoy yielded 3 small blue sharks seen finning on the surface, and 1 additional juvenile humpback whale. The whale was both shy and very unpredictable in its swimming directions. We had some looks though.
On the way home we passed back through our original collection of whales and saw 3 of them a second time. Our talented deckhand Aspen retrieved her second balloon of the day before we docked.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
NOTE: friend and humpback whale expert Mark O’Brien was able to identify one of the juvenile whales on the spot. It was HW-MN0504027. It has no name yet, and was first identified recently, in December 2025. It has only been seen three times if you count our sighting today. If you want to know the identity of the others, Mark will post them on his Facebook page later. You can find this information yourself if you use happywhale.com
