Mugged for one hour… By Minke whales
- Bob Perry
- Aug 10
- 2 min read
Image: an extremely friendly Minke whale seen in clear water in the Santa Barbara Channel.
2026 08–10 SB Channel
Spectacular conditions in the E channel today: sunny skies, glassy seas, and crystal clear, Santa Barbara cobalt water. We spent the entire trip on a hot spot NW of platform Habitat. Total sightings for the day: 8 Minke whales, 12 coastal bottlenose dolphins, 250 common dolphins and 30 California sea lions. You may not believe what you are about to read but I swear it is all true!
Once again Captain Dave gave a short detailed history of offshore oil and gas exploration in the Santa Barbara Channel, then stopped at platform C to outline the workings and the status of offshore oil and gas drilling. He then continued NE.
There were a couple of small, temporary birdnados, and we soon discovered a trio of Minke whales. They appeared to be busy feeding sub-surface, under the birds, and were a little bit shy around the Condor Express… as they typically are. Nonetheless, we had some pretty good looks before we saw some additional bird activity nearby.
We spent the next hour with 5 extremely friendly Minke whales that mugged the Condor Express. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and I’ve never seen or heard of this sort of behavior by a Minke whale. During our time with them, they were mostly close to the boat. (See today’s photo for an example ). At first they were exceedingly friendly and passed under the boat a couple of times, and sometimes they passed under the boat in groups. Things only got better from there. It became an actual mugging. The whales passed up and down both sides. Sometimes they swam upside down. They passed underneath the boat upside down, they swam on their sides looking at their fans on the Condor Express. It was unbelievable. At the end of 1 hour they completely rewrote the book on Minke behavior in the Santa Barbara Channel… we had previously heard of friendly behavior on the East Coast… but never here.
Several groups of common dolphins were also swimming around and were friendly, and we got wonderful looks because of the water clarity.
At one point, we pass a mob of California sea lions on the surface.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
