The far eastern channel produces lots of whales and dolphins.

Image: a humpback whale throws its tail in the distance.

2025 10–22 SB Channel 

Our trip today took us SE and into the eastern channel, while spending a lot of time in the flats. There was no wind in the morning, but it picked up from the W in the afternoon. Skies were clear all day and seas were moderately bumpy. Total sightings for the day: 5000 common dolphins,1 Minke whale,  4 humpback whales and 15 California sea lions.

We haven’t seen any Minke whales for a while, so it was fun to get a few good looks at an adult when we are about 4 miles offshore.

A very large concentration of dolphins was spread out over several miles of water. Groups that were in the thousands were surrounded by smaller groups of 10, 20, or 30. The majority were moving E.

All of the humpback whales we saw today were juveniles. They seem to be in a slow travel mode to the east, and perhaps feeding subsurface. They all had long downtimes of 9 or 10 minutes. Things got kicked off with a single juvenile about 10 miles out. 2 miles further, there was another single with some dolphins and a group of 15 California sea lions. The final sighting was a pair, and we saw one of them threw its tail in the distance (see today’s photo for an example).

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

condorexpressphotos.com

NOTE: the humpback man, our friend Mark, was out today and provided this information: the first whale all we saw was identified as “20 21–22 calf of CRC15425” and one of the whales in the final pair was CRC 21718. Thanks Marc!