2020 02-17 SB Coast
Today marks the first day of our annual coastal whale watching schedule with trips departing
9 AM, 12 noon, and 3 PM every day (depending on weather and such). Today, the first two of these trips left the docks. Both headed southeast and we’re highly successful. Sightings included 2 humpback whales and 3000 long-beaked common dolphins.
Due to our southeasterly course headings, both trips began with a short but highly informative look at the offshore oil and gas platforms near Carpinteria. The action, however, was further southeast and offshore from these rigs.
On the morning trip, we only had to run a mile or two until we encountered a juvenile whale. We were watching it for just a short amount of time when it let loose with a full body breach quite close to the boat. If one had “whale ESP” one might’ve had a heck of a selfie (whalefie). This same little whale did quite a bit of kelping and moved from kelp paddy to kelp paddy playing with the vegetation: wrapping it over its head, wrapping it around its tail, rolling around in it and so forth. On the noon trip, we ran several additional miles beyond the oil platforms and found scattered small pods of dolphins here in there until we finally located a different juvenile whale from the morning trip. As fate would have it, this one breached too! As we continued to move around the area, we also got engaged in a huge megapod with over 2500 animals moving together as though they were one magic monster.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com