Breach-o-rama!
- Bob Perry
- 2 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Image: a juvenile humpback whale puts in a little bit of air time with a splendid breach.
2026 06– 08 SB Channel
The high stratus layer gave way to hazy sunshine, and the ocean was a bit bumpy with a western chop. There was a light breeze all day. Captain Eddy and the crew stayed within 6 or 8 miles of the shore, and ran down to the E. Total sightings: 250 common dolphins and 4 humpback whales. Our deckhand Aspen also removed 2 floating Mylar balloons from the ocean surface. “Happy graduation”…the message on one of them… a wonderful message, but a sad discovery.
N of the Santa Barbara oil platforms we found a small feeding group of dolphins. We spent some time watching before we headed E towards the Carpinteria rigs. It was there that we encountered a single, juvenile humpback whale that had a serious propeller scar. It was only partially healed and open wounds covered with “whale lice” (amphipod crustaceans). Someone told me that the crustacean may serve a healing function by removing dead tissue and promoting new growth.
Captain Eddy reported that this young whale breached nonstop for over 1 hour. Some were more like glorified chin slaps, but others were full-body breaches (see today’s photo above for an example, and see note below regarding the whale’s identity).
We saw evidence that repeated breaching may remove some of the amphipods: after every breach, a big flock of western gulls picked up objects from the ocean surface…we guessed it was the “lice.”
A move to the W put us near platform Hillhouse, off the Santa Barbara/Summerland coast. We encountered a mother humpback with her calf, and we enjoyed watching the little calf repeatedly breach right next to the boat. It’s been a good day for breaching!
Just outside the Harbor we had a quick looks during a drive-by past 1 additional humpback whale and saw another group of at least 200 common dolphins.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
NOTE. This is an individual that we have been seeing off on for the last couple of weeks. Our friend, and whale identification expert, Susanne, reminded me of its happywhale.com identification. It is HW-MN0504103. humpback whales are usually identified by their distinctive tail colorations and markings. But when whales have distinctive scars on their easily visible back, it sadly (for the whale) makes them easier (for us) to identify.
