Mirror glass and super clear water enhanced our sightings of 6 humpbacks and 5000 dolphins.
- Bob Perry
- Jul 12
- 2 min read
2025 07-12 SB Channel
Captain Dave and the crew kept to the coastal side of The Channel again today. Skies were overcast and gray until 1:30pm. Seas ranged from glassy in the morning, then a light breeze with rippled surface, ending up with bright sunshine and mill pond glassy seas again. Sightings for the day included: 4000 common dolphins, 6 humpback whales, and 8 offshore bottlenose dolphins. One or two birdnados were observed.
Not too far from The Harbor a group of actively surface feeding common dolphins foraged around the Condor Express. Dolphin surface slashes and upside-down attacks were plentiful. A larger but less active pod was also watched about 45 min later.
At 11:35am deckhand Isabel spotted a mother humpback and her calf that we stayed with for over an hour. The pair had 10-min long surface times and very short 1-min dive times. Mom was a regular fluker-upper and was identified by our resident tail gunner, Mark, as CRC-12389, which was first identified in 2011 coincidentally by Mark himself! The pair was in slow travel mode the whole time.
The next pair of whales were both adults and, unfortunately, had very long dives and short surface intervals. As we waited for them to come up, on one occasion there was a monster, full-body whale breach in the distance.
Eight offshore bottlenose dolphins were in the area and had 2 calves in the pod. Great looks were had by all.
On the way home, a large megapod of 1000+ common dolphins swam along both sides of the Condor in very clear water. (See today’s photo).
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
