2022 09-12 SB Channel
Today we had a wonderful expedition under partly cloudy skies with glassy seas once again in the Channel. Sightings included: 2 humpback whales, 2000 long-beaked common dolphins, and 1 ocean sunfish (Mola mola).
There were scattered small groups of dolphins encountered from the harbor all the way out to the NOAA East Channel Buoy. In the northbound lanes, south of The Buoy, dolphin pods got much larger, in fact, there was a mega pod of just under 1000 in the area. This is where we found two large adult whales mixed in with dolphins. The two were very lazy on the surface but interrupted this laziness with some active socializing. This included rolling around, slapping pecs, swimming upside down and some trumpet blows. Towards the end of the sighting, the pair made a nice close approach to the Condor Express as if to say “adios”.
In addition to having good cetacean sightings, the crew retrieved 4 deflated, floating, Mylar balloons from the ocean surface.
On the way home there were more scattered small dolphin groups.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store,
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com