Perfect conditions yield 10+ whales, 3000 dolphins and epic behaviors.
- Bob Perry
- Jul 27
- 2 min read
2025 07–27 SB Channel
Captain Eddy and the crew experienced near perfect conditions all day. Sunny skies and flat seas made watching wildlife a dream. Sightings for the day included: 10+ humpback whales and 3000 common dolphins.
Today marked a change in the distribution of dolphins as compared to the previous 7 to 10 days. Rather than being distributed in small pods everywhere, today we encountered three distinct megapods of 1000 animals. This happened at the beginning of the trip just south of the offshore oil and gas platforms. It also occurred in the middle of the trip when dolphins were engaged and feeding with 8 whales. Finally, we had a great encounter on our way home, near the farm.
All of the humpback whales that we saw today were subadult and not particularly large beasts. We located and watched our first whale 4 miles past the oil rigs. This was a friendly whale and it mugged us for about 15 minutes. The entire body was speckled with white dots, and the animal had a white patch or “beard” (not hairy) around its chin.
Our second whale encounter was it an area with 8 whales. We had great looks at 6 of them. There were lots of close approaches to the Condor Express. And there were numerous sideways lunge feeding events on the surface amongst the dolphins and about 30 California sea lions. (See today’s photo for an example of this type of feeding). Outstanding looks were had by all.
In the distance we saw a single humpback throwing its tail around. When we got on the scene it continued lobbing and throwing its tail for about 10 more minutes. This was Nat Geo stuff!
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
