Image: a humpback whale rolls around while slapping its long flippers.
2023 09-16 SB Channel
Another day with a high stratus marine layer. Seas were calm. Sightings included: 200 offshore bottlenose dolphins, 4500 long-beaked common dolphins, 7 humpback whales and 250 California sea lions.
Five miles off the Goleta coast we entered the common dolphin zone and we had pods of all sizes henceforth. Also present was a large pod of offshore bottlenose dolphins. Both species rode our bow, side and stern wake, but the bottlenose used more high-flying aerial maneuvers.
Southeast of Holly we watched 4 individual humpbacks separated by ½ to 1 mile. The whole area, and the next one, supported multiple birdnados, some very large.
After a move to a spot southeast of The Buoy, we found 3 more individual humpbacks. One of them was extremely vocal and did a bit of rolling around with lazy pec slapping.
On the way home we caught up with the same pod of active bottlenose dolphins.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com