Humpback whale and dolphin activity in the far eastern channel today.
- Bob Perry
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Image: a stampede of common dolphins
2026 01–10 SB Channel
Captain Dave and the crew headed directly for the far E channel, rounded platform Gail, which is near Anacapa Island, then traveled W along the face of beautiful Santa Cruz Island, and finally headed directly home. The sea conditions were very nice halfway across the channel, but once we reached the SE region, it was rough, windy, and a bit bumpy. Similarly, the water clarity was rather poor in the N Channel, and cleared up dramatically in the S. Total sightings for the trip included: 1200 common dolphins and 2 humpback whales.
Our first encounter with wildlife was about halfway to Gina, where we took a quick look at about 25 common dolphins before continuing on our way. As we got closer to Gina, we saw a megapod of common dolphins in full-on stampede mode. It was breathtaking! (see today’s photo for an example).
When we were between the lanes and Chinese Harbor, we encountered a very cooperative juvenile humpback whale. It had very short, four minute downtimes and showed its tail fluke regularly. At one point it did a sideways “El Rollo” (a short version of the “windmill”) and showed us it’s beautiful pectoral flippers…which were all white on the bottom. (see note below).
We spent a lot of time with that juvenile whale, then ran directly home. About halfway back, there was a second humpback in the near distance that everyone saw, but we did not have time to stop and spend quality time.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
NOTE: our friend, and expert whale identification person, Mark, using happywhale.com today, identified this whale HW-MN0504022. It was first identified just a few weeks ago with three sightings off of LA and Orange County.
