Image: close approach by friendly gray whale
2023 03-17 SB Coast
Seas were very calm. Skies were mostly cloudy with spots of sunshine dropping through. A single noon trip departed Santa Barbara and sightings were fabulous: 8 Pacific gray whales and 8 Dall’s porpoise.
About 6 miles south of the harbor we watched our first gray whales of the trip. It was a trio moving west (i.e., northbound) and they slowed once or twice to do a bit of rolling around and socializing.
About one mile further we were greeted by a pod of 8 speeding torpedoes, aka Dall’s porpoise. They rode our bow for a while and made a few supersonic close passes.
A bit east of the Dall’s we had great looks at yet another trio of gray whales. This group was much friendlier than our first whales and made several close passes and surfaced next to the Condor Express a few times.
About ¼ mile away we clearly saw 2 additional gray whales but did not have time to follow them.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store.
Bob Perry
Condor Express, and
CondorExpressPhotos.com