The waters were beautiful and the sky was cloudy but we had an awesome and surprising day in the channel!
The first half of the trip was relatively quiet. It wasn't until we made it to Santa Cruz Island that we stumbled upon a large group of common dolphins. About 1,000 were spread out in the area, and lots of calves were seen in this group.
After leaving the dolphins we headed towards one of our favorite whale hotspots known as "the dome." A couple of large splashes caught our crew's attention. While splashes of this magnitude typically mean a breaching humpback whale, no whale was seen as the splashes arose. That's because these splashes weren't caused by humpback whales, they were caused by fin whales! Typically keeping a low profile, fin whales are sleek and slender. They often only show their heads and backs as they surface, but these whales were head lunging almost like a chin slap as they traveled at speeds of 15+ knots!
Our crew hasn't seen fin whales in the channel in over 3 years. WHile these mighty whales will eat both fish and krill, in years past their presence has eluded to huge krill stocks taking claim in the channel. Something we haven't seen in quite some time. Here's hoping to see more fin whales (and their larger cousins), in the channel this year!
Until Next Time,
The SBWW Crew
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