Killer Whales again!
- Bob Perry
- Sep 8
- 2 min read
2025 09–07 SB Channel
It was another picture perfect fall day in our neck of the channel. Skies were clear and sunny. The sea surface was glassy. Captain Eddy and the crew took the Condor Express south, in between platform Charlie and what’s the left of the kelp farm. From there we headed west to a large area full of “action,” about 8 miles south of UCSB. Total sightings for the day included: 15 coastal bottlenose, 2000 common dolphins, 3 humpback whales, 100 California sea lions, 1 Minke whale, and…. 7 killer whales!
A large pod (for the species) greeted us near the mouth of the harbor, we followed them and got great looks as we moved into the Anchorage. Not long after that we watched five or six complete breathing cycles from a large, adult, Minke whale.
About 5 miles offshore, between the farm and the rigs, we watched our first pod of common dolphins. There were about 500 of them. We had great looks.
We moved west just a little bit and intercepted a single humpback whale. It was moving east with short dive times, so once again, wonderful looks had by all.
About this time, our Captain Eddy was communicating with our friend Captain Devin who provided us some interesting information, as these captain/friends often do between them. Based on that conversation, we ran 3 miles west and joined Devin For an amazing encounter with the same CA-51A pod of 7 killer whales we saw just a few days ago. They appeared to have recently taken a California sea lion. Orcas often change their behavior and “get happy“ with close approaches, spy hops and breaches right after a kill. And thus we enjoyed multiple very very close looks At this famous family.
After quite a while the Orcas went back to travel mode with long dive times and erratic course changes. We moved south to see what else we could find. Within a few miles we found a pair of humpback whales. They came by the boat relatively close, within 50 feet, several times. A megapod of at least 1000 common dolphins swam by us.
On the way home we had more common dolphins.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
