Nice weather, nice diversity, good action

Image: a mother fin whale with her calf in the Santa Barbara Channel.

2026 07–18 SB Channel

Conditions in the channel improved a lot overnight. Today we had sunny, blue skies and there was no wind until at least 1 o’clock, and then it was blowing us home. Total sightings: 2 fin whales, 400 common dolphins, 7 humpback whales, and 30 California sea lions.

Hotspots remain about 10 miles offshore, NE of the buoy. There were lots of pop-up birdnados, which attracted dolphins, which, in turn, attracted the whales, which in turn attracted the Condor Express.

The first spot had about 300 dolphins feeding sub-surface. 2 fin whales popped up in the middle of the action, as they, too, appeared to be feeding sub-surface. (See today's photograph above). These were the same 2 fin whales we saw yesterday.

Nearby, we located another spot that was full of humpback whales. The first of them consisted of a mother humpback with her calf. The mother‘s name is “Beaker,” who has been observed many times, according to happywhale.com. Seeing her with a calf today confirmed her previously unknown ♀

gender. Both of the whales got friendly with the Condor Express and swam under the bow. There were some intermittent spy-hops and the calf rolled over a few times. A few minutes later, 2 individual adult humpback whales and after that 1 juvenile, joined the sub-surface feeding. A mob of 30 California sea lions was also feeding here.

A series of tail-throws in the distance led us to another individual, a male named “Kore.” By the time we got there, it had gone into a period of pec-slapping. It calmed down a bit when our final humpback of the day, an adult, came by.

All day long there were pods of dolphins, both in the birdnados, and elsewhere.  

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

condorexpressphotos.com

NOTE

Our whale tail ID research team of Isabel (who was also our deckhand today), and our friend Mark, provided the names of the whales above. Mark also identified one of the other whales, CRC-12146. You can find out more about these searching through the citizen scientist website, happywhale.com  

Thank you Mark and Isabel!