2021 05-09 SB Channel
Mother’s Day started out with high gray stratus but that burned off to sunny skies by mid-day. Seas were calm, flat and glassy. Captain Dave and the crew ran three trips, 9a 12n and 3p. Closely watched species for the day included 16 humpback whales and 4500 long-beaked common dolphins.
A few hundred dolphins interacted with the whales on the morning and noon trips. At 3p we encountered a massive mega-pod that stretched for miles and contained around 3000 dolphins which we followed for several miles as they traveled at high speeds from west to east.
Six whales were watched southwest of the oil platforms on the morning adventure. They were located by all the seabird activity, attracted to the same anchovy bait balls. There were several instances of surface lunge feeding as well as some aerial action in the form of breaching.
Six more whales were observed, west of the oil rigs. A Mother’s Day special mom-calf humpback pair put on a show. Mom did some very nice (and photo-friendly) slow motion spy hops while the calf made a special point of mugging the Condor Express for an extended period of time. Yay for moms everywhere!
The afternoon excursion took us south of the oil platforms where we found 2 actively breaching adult whales. Later, after the aforementioned dolphin herd, 2 more whales, one large and one small, were watched. The large animal threw its big tail around for quite a while and the small whale performed a series of spinning breaches.
You never know what Mother Nature has in store. Bob Perry Condor Express, and CondorExpressPhotos.com