Tremendous action in the southern Channel including more sea lion/humpback whale hijinx.

Image: a mega mob of California sea lions is interacting with two humpback whales near beautiful Pelican Harbor on Santa Cruz Island (The whales had just sounded, they are not seen in this picture).

2025 09–05 SB Channel

The thick morning stratus layer was just starting to break off as we left the Harbor. By the time we got halfway across the channel, it was mostly sunny. There was a light breeze, but that dropped off and it became glassy near beautiful Santa Cruz Island. It was a bit bumpy from overnight winds offshore. Sightings for the day included: 4000 common dolphins, 22+ humpback whales and 450 California sea lions (The sea lion mob was hard to estimate, there could’ve been more than reported).

Not long after we left the Harbor, we found our first pod of common dolphins right next to the farm. There were plenty of little calves in the group and quite a few instances of attempted mating were seen. We would continue to see pods both large and small throughout the rest of the day.

Just after 11 AM we found ourselves north of the lanes. We entered an area that was flush with humpback whales. At several points during this, no matter where we moved within the zone, there were whales surrounding the boat both near and far. There were individual whales, airs, trios and even some quad groups. There were quite a few nice tail flukes, And a mighty tail throw took place and helped to wake everybody up. By 11:30 AM A bird that was at least 1/2 a mile long had formed. It was primarily made up of shearwaters, with plenty of goals, pelicans, cormorants and others. There were more than 1000 dolphins here and a group of four humpback whales were in the mix.

There were numerous close approaches. One whale discovered a kelp paddy and began to drag it around on its tail in a brief episode of kelping. A trio of hales swam towards us from behind, made a very close approach, went under the boat from stern to bow, then came surfaced again, to the amazement of all the whale watchers that were up front.

At this point, Captain Dave decided to head over and do a tour along the northern face of beautiful Santa Cruz Island, including a close look at Pelican Harbor. From our Pelican vantage point, we could see a few whale spouts to the east, off of Prisoner’s Cove. Dave headed in that direction.

Upon arrival, we found a repeat of a sea lions-whale interaction that we had witnessed a couple of days ago, albeit further to the east than today. It was a cooperative feeding episode involving mega pod of California sea lions (See today’s photo) and two sub adult (and hungry) whales. 

A pattern developed, and the sequence was this: starting with the entire mob of sea lions together in a tight pack on the surface, they would make a deep dive together and, within a minute, they were all out of sight. No life was visible of any kind. Within another minute or two, the whales came to the surface and did some breathing. Next, the sea lions returned to the surface, and within another minute we were back to the big mob where we started. 

It is my hypothesis that sea lions cannot hold their breaths as long as whales. They dove first, waiting for the whales to do sub-surface feeding, devoured some by-catch and disoriented fish. then came up to catch their breath. A bit later, the long-winded (and larger appetite) whales came up too. It was a beautiful, glassy and sunny Nat Geo kind of scene.

You never know what mother nature has in store.

Bob Perry

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