Image: A humpback rolls around.
2023 6-23 SB Channel
Seas were calm, unlike yesterday, and skies were sunny and bright. Again, the ocean water was very clear. A trace of wind came up late in the trip. Sightings included: 4500 long-beaked common dolphins and 9 humpback whales.
Captain Dave and the crew ran southwest to an area east of The Buoy which had been hot for a few days. Only a single whale and several pods of 100- 200 dolphins were found there, fun, but we moved west.
A few miles to the west we located another moveable hot spot (very common this week) full of several large pods of dolphins and lots of active seabirds. This hot spot was moving east, as was everything else we watched from this point onward.
A trio of whales was intercepted on their eastbound travel. The made a close approach and everyone had great looks. Again, dolphins were mixed in this eastbound mass of mammals, too. On of the three did a bit of rolling around (see today’s photograph).
Finally, we had back-tracked to our original starting point east of The Buoy, and another 5 whales (1+2+1+1) were closely watched. Thousands of dolphins were in the hot area now. We heard some humpback trumpet vocalizations. The 5th whale in the group was a juvenile and it was extremely friendly…a great “last encounter” of the trip!
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com
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