Good whales and a dolphin nursery pod.

Image: A cow-calf common dolphin pair leaping together.

2023 6-05 SB Channel

The weather ranged from overcast/misty to just plain overcast. Seas were mixed with a small west swell running against a southeast breeze. Sightings were good: 5 humpback whales and 1500 long-beaked common dolphins.

Just outside the kelp farm we watched our first, and small, pod of dolphins, before moving south. We were mid-Santa Cruz Island and in The Lanes when we watched our first whales. It was a mother humpback with her calf and the were difficult to watch. It was a combination of two behaviors: long down times and a zig-zag underwater swim pattern.

After moving further east, we watched a single whale near a mega-pod of common dolphins. This was a nursery pod…practically every adult had a calf in tow. (See today’s photograph).

Responding to some distant breaching we got set up on another pair of whales. The made several close approaches and breached near the boat.

The crew removed 5 floating, deflated Mylar balloons from the ocean surface today.

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

Condor Express, and

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