More inter-species interaction today between a whale and some dolphins

2018 04-07 SB Coast

Captain Dave and his crew ran two trips today, one at 9am and the other at noon.  There were 5 gray whales, 6 inshore bottlenose dolphins, and around 50 Pacific white-sided dolphins closely watched today.  The sea conditions were nice in the morning as a few light rain squalls passed through the Santa Barbara Channel.  After the storm clouds it got a little breezy for the afternoon excursion.

Hendry’s Beach, and its kelp bed, provided the location for our first sighting today as a half-dozen bottlenose dolphins located the Condor Express. They played with us for a while as we continued west.  A bit offshore from Goleta Bay a second species of dolphin, the Pacific white-siders, came out of nowhere and started chasing us.  The final sighting of the morning trip took place up at Coal Oil Point (aka, Counter Point).  A mother gray whale and her very young calf were watched and everyone had great looks.

Another cow-calf pair got the noon trip off to a great start.  The pair was relatively shy, and we did our best to keep with them from Hendry’s to More Mesa.  Moving west, a single whale was spotted near Coal Oil Point.  By this point the winds had become moderate and this whale was also a bit on the shy side.  All of a sudden, another group of Pacific white-sided dolphins found the whale and circled around it.  The whale responded by rolling around and swimming upside down with the dolphins.  This inter-species interaction was fantastic to see.

You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express