Humpbacks and dolphins abound.

2017 12-21 SB Channel

In spite of NOAA weather painting a “doom and gloom” scenario, Captain Tasha and her crew found nice cetacean-watching conditions in the Santa Barbara Channel. Observations for the day included 12 humpback whales (we closely watched 7) and 3000 long-beaked common dolphins.

The first dolphin herd located the boat north of the mid-Channel NOAA buoy. It was a great encounter and typical of the human-dolphin interactions we see all year-round in our waters. Pushing the Condor Express further south, an very productive area with at least 12 whales and a couple thousand dolphins was spotted. We closely watched 7 of the whales, and ran out of time.

Some of the whales closely approached the boat and provided some nice photo ops and selfies. Another whale threw its tail around a bit, and yet another got airborne for a massive breach. This, naturally, provoked a hearty round of cheers from the whale and dolphin fans on board.

You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com