Several dozen humpback whales and a few hundred California sea lions
- Bob Perry
- Oct 29
- 2 min read
2025 10–29 SB Channel
Continued excellent conditions made locating and watching marine mammals fantastic today. Skies were sunny and bright, the ocean was mirror glass, and there was only a small swell that was hardly noticeable. Captain Dave and the crew ran across the entire channel and ended up with a tour of the world famous painted cave. Totals for the trip: 30+ humpback whales (we closely watched 14), 200 California sea lions and 1 Minke whale.
There were no dolphins of any kind observed today. That was fairly unusual.
There was a large aggregation of humpback whales and sea lions SW of platform habitat. We did not have time to visit every one of them, but here are some of the standout encounters: an initial group of 5 whales that included some that appeared to be in a competition group, were watched for a long time. Not only was there the usual socializing which included rolling around, chasing each other, swimming sideways, and vocalization, but the whales took regular brief intermissions during which time they came over and mugged the Condor Express. This happened repeatedly. There was an alternating cycle between socializing behavior and mugging the boat. Lucky us on both counts! There were California sea lions in small groups around every group of whales. Additional whales came and went, with lots more spouts in the distance
We slowly passed 2 additional whales as we traveled S to visit Santa Cruz Island and the world famous painted cave. Here, Captain Dave gave one of his talks about the island, its geological history, ecology, and indigenous human origins.
As we slowly pulled away from the cave we had a brief glance at a Minke whale; one look and it was gone. As we were heading N, in the middle of the lanes, we came upon 3 large rafts of California sea lions that were relaxing in the warm sun on the surface. Each of the rafts had about 50 animals, and one raft of animals was in a giant kelp paddy. (See today’s photo for an example).
Further along our route towards the harbor, we found an additional 4 whales that were also in a competitive group with all the identifying behaviors that were previously mentioned above.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
