Dolphins and whales galore including a pair of whales that got aerial for almost an hour straight.
- Bob Perry
- Aug 29, 2025
- 2 min read
2025 08–29 SB Channel
It was a sunny day and you could see all the islands. It was pretty glassy near the mainland, but as the day progressed, and we moved offshore, the breeze freshened and there were white caps here and there. Captain Dave and the crew ran south from the harbor in a direct line to the buoy. We entered the shipping lanes following the whales (details of this below). Total sightings: 3000 common dolphins and 6 humpback whales.
We spent about a half an hour with a large, spread out, pod of common dolphins. They appeared to be in travel/searching mode. Towards the end of the sighting, we got into the maternity ward which was full of little calves. A few minutes later a second, smaller pod was also in searching mode and had a few calves as well.
We watched our first whales for about a half an hour, starting at 11 o’clock. One whale was larger than the other. They were in search mode running a straight line to the southwest and showed their tail flues a few times.
Around 1215 we saw a megabreach in the distance, then about 10 minutes later the same whale did it again. Meanwhile a single whale came closer to us as we neared the buoy. This whale was doing a lot of traveling as well. A few miles west we saw repeated breaching and Captain Dave turned and headed for it.
It was a pair of whales and we watched nonstop breaching from 12:20 to 1:10 PM. Both whales were engaged and conservatively breached 30 or 40 times each. Later in the sighting, the breaching tapered off and the whales got into pectoral fin slapping. Needless to say, the breaching was spectacular. Most often the whale shot upwards like a rocket, then rolled over and landed on their back. One whale rolled all the way over and came back on his belly. Many of these breaches were so powerful that there was massive amounts of spray sent everywhere. (See today’s photo for an example).
A few dolphins came and went.
On the way home, just a mile or so off of Hope Ranch, we found a pod of dolphins that did a lot of socialization. This included loud squeaking noises, made when the dolphin had his head way out of the water almost vertical. There were a number of tail slaps as well. A great way to end the trip!
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Note: while we were following the two breaching whales, they led us into the northbound shipping lane. We ended up directly in the path of a container cargo vessel, HMM Ruby, which was heading to Oakland and traveling at about 20 nautical miles per hour. It was pretty scary for a few minutes, but Captain Dave was eventually able to contact the captain and, at the last minute, the big vessel veered off to the left and left us, and our two whales safely out of the way.
