FIVE Cetacean species were present in the channel today. With beautifully flat sea conditions we could use the boat's speed to track down all of our target species... Almost.
Jetting out of the harbor we sped towards Santa Cruz Island. Our first sighting was a pair of humpbacks lazily logging on the surface. The two deeply exhaled as they rested on the surface. A bit further south we spotted a cow/calf pair of fin whales; a nice treat for us! Fin whales are the second largest species of whale after their cousin the blue whale. While fin whales often feed on both fish and krill, when they're prevalent in the channel, they most likely feed on krill which was evident by the red poop seen by our drone! After some very nice looks at the fin whales, we turned East in search of more blubber.
We found ourselves in the middle of a nice group of feeding whales. 3 of them were humpbacks feeding on what appeared to be krill looking at its density and depth in the water column. One of the smaller whales fluked often and even turned towards our boat for a quick pass. In the distance, our crew spotted another large spout. In the binos, we confirmed it to be a blue whale, but as the trip was running extremely short on time, we weren't able to get set up on the giant beast...
On the way home we had brief encounters with a few bottlenose dolphins and a small group of common dolphins, in which a few newborn calves were present. It was a remarkable day with 5 cetacean species and a baleen whale trifecta! If you count it as such.
Until Next Time,
The SBWW Crew
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