Wonderful humpback interactions, why not? After all, it’s gray whale season.
- Bob Perry
- 18 hours ago
- 2 min read
Image: a young humpback whale is engaged in kelping behavior.
2026 02–05 SB Channel
After a brief tour of platform Charlie, captain Dave and the crew headed directly S, and ended up inside the SBD lanes. Calm seas prevailed with grey, high overcast stratus layer. There was a big, long period ground swell running, it was fun to see but not enough to bother anyone. Total sightings: 3 humpback whales, 1 blue shark, 5 common dolphins.
On our way out to the lanes, where most of the life was located, Captain Dave pulled up close to platform Charlie, as mentioned above. He gave a short interpretation of how offshore platforms work, their history, and environmental concerns.
Before we entered the lanes, we spent time with a single adult whale. It was very shy but we got good looks. Nearby, we were able to watch a small blue shark finning on the surface. There’s been quite a few these last couple of weeks.
Inside SBD lane, there were two young humpbacks. One was quite small, the other perhaps a yearling. The small one (See note below) was a happy individual. It spent a lot of time rolling around and playing in the nearby kelp paddies. (The photo above is an example of a humpback kelping.) Five individual common dolphins meandered through the zone as we watched these humpbacks.
When we were watching whales inside the commercial shipping lines, a 113 meter, 7976 ton bunker fuel tanker, “Seaspan Garibaldi”, from Vancouver Canada, approached the Condor Express as it headed towards the port of Long Beach California. Captain Dave hailed the vessel and detailed the situation with Whales on the surface, and he responded by diverting his course. This is good news. Bravo Seaspan Garibaldi. Bravo Dave!
As a final note, the Condor crew had a very productive day: they removed eight floating, deflated, mylar balloons from the ocean surface.
You never know what mother nature has in store.
Bob Perry
NOTE: Our multi-talented deck hand, Isabel, identified the juvenile whale after taking photographs of its tail. It is CRC-22162, “Calf of Stump,” which we encountered a few days ago. Thanks Isabel!