Sunny, windy, a little bumpy… with hungry humpback whales.
- Bob Perry
- 3 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Image: a hungry humpback whale does some surface lunge feeding right next to the Condor Express.
2026 07–25 SB Channel
If you read yesterday‘s Whale Report, conditions were just about the same… “nautical.” It was windy and bumpy, but there was plenty of sunshine. All the action was still out by the buoy. Total sightings for the day: 1500 common dolphins, 3 humpback whales and 7 California sea lions.
Even though it was moderately nautical, there were plenty of anchovy bait balls on the surface here and there. This attracted numerous groups of common dolphins, each group with 100 to 200 individuals. Per usual, the actively feeding dolphins were used as indicators to attract the attention of the 3 humpback whales.
One individual was actively surface-feeding. It was a large female that was identified by our talented deck hand, Isabel, as CRC – 15559. (You can use happywhale.com to find out the history of this whale’s sightings). One feeding event took place when there was a bait ball right next to the Condor Express. Everyone on board got a first hand look as the whale’s giant mouth, engulfed most of the bait ball, and then close her mouth again. (See today’s photograph for an example). All of the wheels were moving around quite a bit following the dolphins and searching for those patches of anchovies.
A small group of California sea lions was in the mix.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
