KILLER WHALES
Image: two killer whales spy-hop simultaneously in the Santa Barbara Channel.
2026 09–27 SB Channel
Captain Eddy and the crew reported sunny skies with a light breeze in the afternoon. The water was clear, and there was a small swell from the W that didn’t bother anybody. We made a long trip and ended up SW of platform Gail in the separation zone, part of the far Eastern Channel. Total sightings for the trip: 15 coastal bottlenose dolphins, 7 or 8 killer whales , and 1 California sea lion.
There was a large pod of coastal bottlenose dolphins at the Harbor entrance ready to greet us as we departed this morning. We followed them along near the yacht club for quite a while and got great looks before proceeding to the Eastern channel.
The big story of the day: there were 7 or eight killer whales SE of platform Gail. The pod has been identified as the CA 51’s. It included 2 large males, Orion and Bumper. 5 of them were females including the matriarch named Star. The crew believes they had at least one calf with them. A lone California sea lion was swimming around with the killer whales without a care in the world… The KW‘s did not pay any attention to it.
The KW’s were very friendly and made several close approaches to the boat…plenty of opportunities for a killer selfie! This pod is known to be very friendly around boats. There were at least 6 other vessels in the immediate vicinity, all were respectfully watching their distance around the pod.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
NOTE
A special thanks to our deckhand, Isabel, for providing the identification information posted in this report. Our friend Susanne was also involved.. a big thanks to both of you whale-loving women.
