Gray whales, humpback whales, a Minke whale and some dolphins

Image: common dolphins swim upside-down for at least 3  different reasons. One of them is hunting prey, as seen here. Can you guess the other 2?

2026 03–13 SB Channel 

A pair of 2.5 hour trips had great success today. The first left at 9 AM, the other at 12 N.  The sky was a patchwork of sun and clouds, there was not much wind at everything mellowed out by the afternoon. Sightings were phenomenal: 400 common dolphins, 2 gray whales, 7 humpback whales (we closely watched 5), and 1 Minke whale. The action is still S of the harbor, but today we did not go more than about eight or 9 miles. The crew also heroically removed a giant sized Mylar balloon floating on the water.

25 rogue common dolphins were intercepted between the 2  harbor entry buoys to get the day started. A few hundred yards S, the rest of the pod, about 75 of them, we’re busy feeding, including a lot of upside down action. (See today’s photo for an example).

A bit further offshore we encountered 2 adult gray whales moving N. They had a nice, regular cycle, with short dives and long surface intervals. Consequently,  very good looks were had by all. Strictly by chance, they came close to both sides of the boat during our visit.

About 9 miles out, we watched a pair of very cooperative juvenile humpbacks, plus a single whale. Like the gray whales, the pair was very regular in their cycle and spent a lot of time up. The single was a little bit more elusive so we headed back towards the harbor. A single Minke whale was seen during one of its surface intervals.

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5 miles out, we found 5 humpback whales. We closely watched a pair plus another single animal. One member of the pair breached astern, and both of them made close approaches. There were other whales in the distance, and one of those breached also.

2 miles later we found a large pod of common dolphins and enjoyed watching them ride our bow, side and stern waves.

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

condorexpressphotos.com

QUIZ- common dolphins swim upside down for all sorts of reasons. I have hypothesized 3 among them: one is to isolate prey in their visual field while feeding, another is exhibited by males when they come up underneath a female and hope to mate with her (rarely successful and more often they get tail slapped in the head for trying), and the third reason is just to have fun. I fully admit there are other reasons.

NOTE: our friend, Susanne was out today and always helps identify humpbacks. She uses happywhale.com  and so can you. Here is one from the afternoon trip:

HW-MN0503764

This whale has been recorded 5 times, all in California. The first record was in March 2025, and the last one, prior to today, was in October 2025. It has ranged from the Santa Barbara Channel down as far as Dana Point.