Four different cetacean species today. After the morning fog burned off, things got wild.
- Bob Perry
- Apr 12
- 2 min read
2025 04-12 SB Channel
Two public whale watch trips left the docks today under the supervision of Captain Dave. There was a 9 AM and a 12 noon excursion. We encountered dense, zero visibility fog in the morning. By the afternoon, things had cleared up. Sightings today were tremendous: 1 Gray whale, 6 Dall’s porpoise, 6 Humpback whales, and 2,000 Common dolphins. Additionally, the giant “bloom” of Velella velella continues! (see yesterday‘s report for more info).
The AM trip started by heading west, hugging the coast, and almost immediately located a single, northbound, adult gray whale. We had a good look at it, then it immediately disappeared in the dense fog. About a mile further west, still in the fog, a small but very friendly pod of Dall’s porpoise located the boat and stayed with us, riding our bow, side, and stern waves for 15 minutes. It was so great to see them, especially given the visibility around us.
At noon, under blue skies, the sightings were much more productive. Dave did an oil rig tour of platform Charlie, then close by, found 2 extremely friendly, active, adult humpback whales. They greeted us with a couple of mighty tail throws, then one of them did a whale yoga head stand and held it straight up down for what seemed like an eternity. (See today’s photograph for an example). The head standing whale finally found inner peace then slipped quietly straight down into the deep blue sea . Next, the pair proceeded to mug the Condor Express for over 30 minutes. During the mugging, a portion of a megapod of common dolphins came through the area. We diverted, found and followed the entire pod for a while as they passed through two extremely large BS5 birdnados. At this point we were just a little bit west of Habitat. Four additional whales came in to join the pair that we had been watching. One of them took advantage of the birdnados to do a little bit of surface sideways lunge feeding.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry