Stunningly gorgeous day yields Cetacea galore including lunge-feeding
- Bob Perry
- Sep 23
- 2 min read
2025 09–23 Santa Barbara Channel
I’m going crazy with adjectives. The ocean was mirror flat, mill pond slick and oily calm all day. Skies were partly sunny and there was no swell. It’d be hard to imagine a better day for locating and watching wildlife. Sightings for the day: 13 humpback whales (We closely watched 9), 1 Minke whale, 51 California sea lions and 4000 common dolphins.
All the action today was located approximately along in E to W line that was about 4 miles S of the farm. A pair of humpback whales logging on the surface, with occasional very short dives, got us started for the day. (See the note below about these 2 whales). It was a very calm scene. As we watched these first two whales A lone Minke whale sporadically popped up in random locations around us so often that everyone got a look at it. A single California sea lion came up to the boat and looked at the all the peeps.
A megapod of dolphins to the W got our attention. These lively animals were spread out and soon led us to a massive birdnado. The water was clear and the surface anchovy population was at least four or five times the size of the Condor Express. In addition to the dolphins and birds feeding, there were three humpbacks here. It was 2 large adults and 1 small, possible calf. There was coordinated vertical and side lunging, and several close approaches. The trio (apparently) filled their bellies and slowly left the area. Two single humpbacks came in and took over the lunge—feeding opportunity. All-in-all, we watched anchovies being decimated via gluttony for an hour and a half, before the hotspot cooled off. It was totally Nat Geo!
After a short while 2 additional humpbacks swam by as we prepared to turn the boat and head home. On the trip back, we got into another large megapod of dolphins.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
NOTE: when our crew member Isabel is not busy with her deckhand duties, or filling in behind the wheel for Captain Eddy, She is extremely knowledgeable and helpful in identifying whales by their tail flukes using happywhale.com. Her research identified the first two whales of the day: CRC-15743, “Dos Equis,” and CRC-20388, “2021-2022 Calf of Jolly Rodger.” (Dos Equis was eventually given It’s name by one of our own Condor Express deck hands back in the day because he thought it was “ A most interesting whale”)
