Gluttony and Pandemodium
- Bob Perry
- Mar 30
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 31
2025 03–30 SB Channel
Captain Eddy and the crew ran two trips: 9 AM and 12 noon. Conditions started off with mostly glassy seas and a stratus layer that kept things gray. During the afternoon trip a light breeze picked up and we were in rain/drizzle. Total signings for today were, again, phenomenal: 4000 common dolphins , 30 humpback whales, and 5 gray whales. But, as I have said quite a bit recently, there was far more going on than just the numbers.
The morning adventure got started with a tight pod of five adult, northbound, migrating gray whales. All were very large adults. There was quite a bit of socialization going on, including swimming while in close contact, rolling around, and so forth. We spent about 1/2 hour following them and getting some great looks.
The rest of the morning Trip and the entire afternoon excursion followed a similar pattern. Both involved amazingly large numbers of super hungry and active humpback whales In the same location south west of the farm. We closely watched 15 humpbacks at this location on both trips. I’ll describe individual activities below.
The rest of the morning adventure was spent watching countless numbers of large birdnados which had attracted at least 2000 dolphins and then, the whales. As reported yesterday, the whales were busy with vertical surface lunge feeding, simultaneously, sometimes in pairs, some in trios, foursomes and even five or more at a time. They appeared to take about three massive group vertical lunges at each hotspot before moving onto the next one. Rinse and repeat.
At noon we were in rain and drizzle. But the show must go on. As we arrived on the hotspot we were immediately greeted by two humpback whales that had been previously mugging one of our sister Santa Barbara boats, the Velella. They came to the Condor Express and we found ourselves looking directly into the eyeballs of these two beasts as they worked from one side of the boat to the other. They spy-hopped just inches away from our hulls. I like to call Their behavior a “people watching” trip.
Nearby the rest of the humpbacks were still busy with their vertical lunges, exactly as described on the morning trip. I wonder if they stopped to rest at night?
It is a wonderful time of year in The Channel as the humpbacks have returned and the last of the grays are passing through on their way to the Arctic.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
