Glassy calm seas with whales and dolphins galore.

Image: an upside-down humpback alternates right and left pectoral fin slaps.

2023 09-14 SB Channel

Although there was an all-day, high and thin marine layer, seas were glassy with no swell or wind. Sightings included 4000 long-beaked common dolphins, 6 humpback whales and 200 California sea lions.

Captain Dave and the crew took the Condor Express on a southwesterly course that ended up working a very hot and productive area that was north and just a tad east of The Buoy. Groups of dolphins of all sizes were watched, and many very active hot spots full of dolphins, sea lions and birds developed into full-blown birdnados.

Before long, some of these hot spots yielded humpback whales. We watched 6 individual whales and only 2 of them actually came together for a very brief time before resuming their solo “moving around and searching” behavior.

The first whale was by far the most active, breaching at least 5 times then going into a nice episode of pectoral flipper-slapping (see today’s photo for an example). Later whales were about a mile apart and nowhere near as active as numero uno.

You never know what Mother Nature has in store.

Bob Perry

Condor Express, and

CondorExpressPhotos.com