Summary 5 Orcinus orca (killer whales) 1 gray whale 1 minke whale 500 long beaked common dolphins lots of California sea lions
As light rain was approaching from the western Santa Barbara Channel, the Condor Express ran far to the east to find great weather and sea conditions and abundant wild life. The highlight of the trip was approximately one hour with five killer whales. In the pod there was a large male and also a juvenile. They swam around the area with no immediate direction as we all got tremendous looks. At one point, the pod swam directly towards the boat and several Orcas came right along side. Fabulous stuff. Later in the hour there was some high speed underwater rushes and it appeared as if some of the whales were attacking a sea lion. It may have been a “practice” attack or some kind of play, but we saw no evidence that the pinniped had actually been cut or bitten.
The day also included several great looks at a lone minke whale off the northern side of Anacapa Island, and a solitary, very focused, migrating gray whale making a bee line to the southeast. A spread out herd of feeding common dolphins was found in the rain as we headed back home along the face of beautiful Anacapa Island which is showing some green after the recent rains.
I’ll post the photos of this adventure later this evening to www.CondorExpressPhotos.com
happy holidays Bob Perry