A beautiful day with lots of humpbacks.

Image: a great look at a humpback whale throwing its mighty tail, by crew member Kelly Kohls.

2026 03–14 SB Channel 

Captain Dave and the crew ran a 9A and a 12 N trip today under beautiful clear skies with no wind. There was, however, a moderate bump from the W. The action was located between the harbor and 9 miles SW. Total sightings for the day: 12 humpback whales, 1 blue shark, 25 offshore bottlenose dolphins, and 100 California sea lions.

A juvenile humpback whale took up most of our time on the morning excursion. In addition to 2 giant breaches, the beast lob-tailed many times (see today’s photo by Kelly of this animal). It also threw its tail, and rolled upside down to lob-tail again. Finally, it got tired and we moved E. There, we located 3  adult humpbacks and had great looks. On the way we saw a single blue shark on the surface briefly.

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The afternoon excursion got started with a small pod of offshore bottlenose dolphins. Captain Dave drove the Condor Express in a circle so we could watch the dolphins do some surfing as well as high flying aerial activities.

Moving W, we watched 2 humpback whales that appeared to be feeding sub-surface. Later, about 8 miles off Goleta Bay, we had good looks at another pair of humpbacks, and then encountered 4 more. 3 of them were watched closely as they, too, fed sub-surface. The water was very clear and enhanced this sighting…the fourth whale was not quite as active. A lot of this feeding took place with a gang of sea lions which always serve as indicators of where the whales may come up.

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

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