Today 200+ Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins Join the Party
The day started off with a very nice visit with a mother humpback whale and her very friendly (what else?) calf. The calf breached several times, lobbed its tail and did a bit of rolling around to excite the humans. This action was east of Santa Barbara Harbor, not far from the line of offshore oil platforms. There was one additional adult #humpbackwhale also in the area, along with the usual large entourage of common dolphins. Next we headed west towards UCSB, where all the action ended up yesterday afternoon. But on the way, we were in for a great treat: an estimated 200+ offshore bottlenose dolphins, the larger pelagic cousins of our local coastal dolphin surfing team, was observed spread over a wide area and doing all the natural antics these big dolphins are known for… a lot of breaching and jumping and riding along with the Condor Express. Upon reaching the western hot spot, 2 additional humpback whales were located and watched. The day started off with a marine layer of low clouds, but quickly burned off to become a nice sunny day. It was a great day with 5 humpbacks, 2,000 common dolphins and a very rare treat, 200 offshore bottlenose dolphins. Wow.
You certainly never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express