Ideal conditions produced 4 humpback whales including Scarlet.

Image: a few of my favorite pictures of Scarlet, who we see every year at this time. Her name calls attention to a prominent propeller scar across her back.

2026 06–27 SB Channel

Captain Eddy Reports a glassy ocean surface with ideal conditions. Total sightings for the day: 2500 common dolphins, 4 humpback whales, and 100 California sea lions. Eddy headed SW towards The Buoy today.

A small pod of  common dolphins was located 5 miles along our track. There was a lot of underwater swimming and when we arrived on the scene it was determined that this was “a mating pod.“  We see occasional mating events, but a whole pod… quite unusual!

A small birdnado was observed 1 mile later. There were 2 individual humpback whales that were feeding a sub-surface. Also in the area there was a mega-pod of common dolphins, at least 1000 individuals. Lots of sea lions joined in the feeding.

Just N of The Buoy, there were 2 more humpbacks. One of them was our old friend “ Scarlet.” (notes: I’ve placed some images of Scarlet above, and Susanne has provided ID numbers for the whales, including Scarlet, at the end of this report). Both of these whales were sub-surface feeding, but Scarlet, as she frequently does, came close to the boat and performed a full-body breach, much to the amazement of everyone on board! Her buddy, meanwhile, did some pectoral fin slapping. There were another 1000 dolphins in this area.

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

marinebiophotography.com

NOTE:

Susanne and Marc were busy today identifying Whales using happywhale.com   Susanne sent us the following ID numbers:

HW-MN0503591

This individual has been recorded 5 times, 3 of them in the Santa Barbara Channel. All of its records come from California. It was first identified in August 2024, and the last record prior to today was in July of last year. It is gone as far as Monterey to the N.

CRC-19846

There are 24 records for this individual and 11 of them come from Santa Barbara. First record was in August 2021, and the last record prior to today was this past February. Santa Barbara is the northern most of its range, according to the records, and it has been seen off of Cabo San Lucas, BCS, Mexico.

CRC12451 - our friend “Scarlett“

There are 62 records for Scarlett going back to 2010. The most unusual thing about her is that she has never been recorded N of Santa Barbara, nor S of Long Beach… given all those decades this was a big surprise in the data. 

“Scarlet has a very distinctive ship strike scar, a large propeller wound with round lumps of scar tissue behind her rostrum. She is known as a female from at least two sightings with calves, according to naturalist Robert Perry and Adam Ernster of Condor Cruises. Mother of Johansson. Also formerly HW-MN0501552.”  

CRC-18271 - calf of CRC-11338

19 of the total 39 records are from Santa Barbara. It was first recorded in 2018, and it was last recorded, prior to today, earlier this month. It has been recorded from Monterey Bay, California to the N, and Puerto Vallarta, BCS, Mexico, to the S.

Thanks again to our resident whale aficionada, Susanne!