Sun shines on 20+ giant BLUE WHALES, and more

Image: A friendly giant blue whale comes by the Condor Express to visit its fan club on the boat.

2024 08-10 SB Channel

Hooray. We did not have dense fog all day today. Instead, the sun was in and out and in and out. Fortunately for us, the it was shining brightly when we got out towards beautiful Santa Rosa Island and the blue whale hotspot. Sightings for the day included: 20+ giant blue whales (we closely watched nine), 2500 common dolphins and one ocean sunfish (Mola mola).

With the areas of good visibility, it is no surprise that our dolphin counts went up quite a bit today. We found an initial pod of about 200 animals spread out just 1 mile off the harbor. As we were watching dolphins and proceeding southwest, we slowed to look at a semi-friendly, large ocean sunfish. It was basking in the sun (what else would it be doing?) North of the lanes, we began to see larger pods, some of them 700+  strong. And then, in the whale zone, there were easily 1000.

As we watched the last megapod  of dolphins, we saw a tall spout a mile away. Upon arriving at the scene,  we found spouts all over the area, at least 20, including those in binocular range. Captain Dave has been around blue whales for several decades. He intuitively realized that the whales were feeding fairly shallow, and they were all bunched up. So we slowed the boat and basically held position as whales came to the surface and then dove all around. We were never without whales on the surface at any time. He estimated that we watched at least nine distinct individuals . 

Several of the whales came by the Condor Express for a visit. (See today’s photograph for an example). In addition to the friendly behavior and the great abundance of animals, there were a couple of instances of quick side-lunges at the surface. Perhaps some of the deeper krill had come up a bit and the whales did not miss a trick.

You never know what Mother Nature has in store.

Bob Perry

Condor express, and

CondorExpressPhotos.com