Image: an adult blue shark in the Santa Barbara Channel.
2024 08–25 SB Channel
Captain Eddy and the crew covered a lot of water as they made a loop from the Harbor West to Platform Holly, then around and back east to the Summerland rig line. Skies were clear and sunny all day. There was just a tiny bump on the water from overnight wind in The Channel, but today it was glassy with no wind at all. Sightings for the trip included:
1 humpback whale, 2500 common dolphins and one blue shark. One, floating, deflated, Mylar balloon was picked up by the crew.
On our way out of The harbor, we were heading towards the Kelp Farm. When we got close to the red harbor entrance buoy to look at the sea lions, we found an adult blue shark….a 6 footer. It stayed up for a short period of time, everybody got some looks, and then it dove. (See today’s photo for an example).
As we moved west towards Holly, we passed a few dolphin pods that were about 200 strong. There were more dolphins near Holly, but the groups were quite spread out. As we arched out to the south, we came up on our first megapod of at least 1000 animals. Some were friendly and swam alongside the Condor Express.
When we got back to the Summerland oil platforms, a single adult humpback whale came to the surface. It was moving to the west in travel mode, with short surface times. Everybody got good looks, but there was no messing around with this animal.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
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