2014 08-28 SB Channel
Juvenile humpback whale is Energizer Bunny in disguise !
It was a bright and sunny day. There was a breeze near Santa Barbara Harbor and it got fresher as we made our way out into the Santa Barbara Channel. Long beaked common dolphins were all around, mostly in small pods. A group of high school students were among the many passengers from all over the world, and some of the students cheered every time we saw another dolphin. It was shaping up to be a high energy day. We even spotted a nice sized sunfish or Mola mola, even though the Velella seem to be in decline. After passing through several common dolphin pods not far off the beach, Captain Dave steered a course offshore and before long his keen eyesight had located two spouts in the distance. There was on tall spout and one short spout. Upon arriving on the scene it was soon obvious that we were watching a mother humpback whale and her calf. The little calf said hello and greeted the Condor Express with a nice tail throw. I don't know if this humpback calf got a hold of some extremely rich mother's milk, or a school of high sugar content anchovies, or if it was simply joie de vivre, but it proceeded to breach non stop for about an hour an a half. After that, it moved on to slapping its white-on-both-sides pectoral fins and rolling around for another 45 minutes. Another possibility for all this activity might have been the wind. The crew and I have noticed humpbacks getting active when the wind picks up as it often does in the afternoon. The more wind, the higher they leap...in our limited non-scientific survey based on personal observations. For all we know the feeling of the strong breeze all over their airborne massive bodies might get them excited. I was excited watching this and so was everyone on the boat. One high school student actually did a NASA-style countdown "5-4-3-2-1" and the whale leaped. That's how regular and predictable the calf's behavior was there for a while. A pretty accurate breach count for the calf would be about 74 times.
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Read MoreIt was a bright and sunny day. There was a breeze near Santa Barbara Harbor and it got fresher as we made our way out into the Santa Barbara Channel. Long beaked common dolphins were all around, mostly in small pods. A group of high school students were among the many passengers from all over the world, and some of the students cheered every time we saw another dolphin. It was shaping up to be a high energy day. We even spotted a nice sized sunfish or Mola mola, even though the Velella seem to be in decline. After passing through several common dolphin pods not far off the beach, Captain Dave steered a course offshore and before long his keen eyesight had located two spouts in the distance. There was on tall spout and one short spout. Upon arriving on the scene it was soon obvious that we were watching a mother humpback whale and her calf. The little calf said hello and greeted the Condor Express with a nice tail throw. I don't know if this humpback calf got a hold of some extremely rich mother's milk, or a school of high sugar content anchovies, or if it was simply joie de vivre, but it proceeded to breach non stop for about an hour an a half. After that, it moved on to slapping its white-on-both-sides pectoral fins and rolling around for another 45 minutes. Another possibility for all this activity might have been the wind. The crew and I have noticed humpbacks getting active when the wind picks up as it often does in the afternoon. The more wind, the higher they leap...in our limited non-scientific survey based on personal observations. For all we know the feeling of the strong breeze all over their airborne massive bodies might get them excited. I was excited watching this and so was everyone on the boat. One high school student actually did a NASA-style countdown "5-4-3-2-1" and the whale leaped. That's how regular and predictable the calf's behavior was there for a while. A pretty accurate breach count for the calf would be about 74 times.
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