Two trips today with beautiful conditions and five different species.
- Bob Perry
- Feb 21
- 2 min read
2026 02–21 SB Channel
Two trips left the docks today, one at 9 AM the other at 12 noon. The sky was clear and blue. The seas were calm. There was no wind in the morning and a very light breeze in the afternoon. Sightings for the day: 8 humpback whales, 2 gray whales, 1 coastal bottlenose dolphin, 1 Minke whale and 800 common dolphins. All of the sightings were in the same zone as yesterday, about 8 miles S of the Harbor.
We found a single humpback whale and had a quick look as soon as we reached the zone on the morning trip. Nearby we followed 2 adult Nbd gray whales. (See today’s photograph above for an example). Later we watched a trio of humpback whales before returning to the Harbor.
The afternoon trip got started right away as we saw a single coastal bottlenose dolphin near the red harbor entrance buoy. We left the dolphin, ran S to the same hotspot found this morning, and immediately located 3 very friendly humpback whales. One of them spy-hopped right next to the boat and others made close passes under our bow. Nearby, a single Minke whale came through the zone and appeared to lift its head and look at the Condor Express (according to CINC naturalist Lisa). A little bit W we found 3 more humpbacks that were being quite social with each other, which included some rolling around and vocalization. Our final sighting of the day wasn’t too far away. Some turbulence on the water through the binoculars turned out to be a herd of about 800 common dolphins.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
NOTE: our friend and whale tail connoisseur, Susanne, was able to snap identifiable humpback whale tails and identify them using www.happywhale.com. Here are some identifying numbers so you can look them up yourself and find more information:
1. CRC-15398, named Kulea. Has been recorded 32 times since it was first identified in 2011 in California.
2. CRC-15210, a female with no name yet, has been recorded 10 times since it was first identified in 2010 in California.
3. CRC-21619, recorded five times since it was first seen in Nayarit, Mexico. (north of Puerto Vallarta).
