2015 06-24 SB Channel
The conditions were good. There was bright sun all day and a the sea surface ranged from light to moderate chop from the west. Winds started off calm as you might expect, then started to blow, then alternately blew and backed off for a couple of hours. It was a great day for watching cetaceans.
Among the 8 humpback #whales closely watched today (with more spouts in the distance) was our long-standing friend "Rope." She was with another, even larger, female and moved around the area starting near Habitat and ending about 5 miles south of Santa Barbara Harbor. Rope did that "chomping" at the surface behavior I've described in earlier reports, and I think I caught one or two of them with my camera. She still sends up that unique "fire hose" stream from her spouts once every so often.
Mostly the anchovies were below the surface, but we did get into one or two hot spots with bait balls that were up. Pelicans were crashing on these spots and the other birds clambered to gobble the scraps. The humpback whale reaction to these surface bait balls was mystifying. Once or twice there were distant vertical lunges, and, more frequently, that surface "skimming" or "chomping." But none of the whales hit the bulls eye in terms of lunge feeding in the most dense central regions of the anchovy mass. They completely by-passed the dense spots and swam off to find new areas. Perhaps, as Sally suggested, the whales are stuffing themselves on schools of fish below the surface and thus are not so interested in the surface bait balls. The #dolphins had no such problems and attacked the core of the school with gusto.
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Our pal "Rope," the humpback whale we've seen every year for the past 12 years, is shown here vertically lunge feeding on surface anchovies.
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-132
Humpback whale tail flukes
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-019
A spouting humpback whale heads directly at the camera
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-083
Two humpback whales surface near the bow of the Condor Express
Megaptera novaeangliae & passengers wide angle 2015 06-24 SB Channel-a-064
Tail flukes waterfall - a humpback whale sounds
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-085
Dynamic Duo - a pair of humpback whales
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-041
Rope shows us her head...terminal stage of lunge feeding on the surface
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-136
Choppy seas, lots of sea birds and a humpback whale tail
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-146
A humpback whale with a flock of gulls hoping to pick up some stray anchovies left over from the whale feeding
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-152
A diving humpback with the underside of its tail flukes showing a lot of white coloration
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-b-008
Close up look at the white-tailed humpback surrounded by sooty shearwaters
Megaptera novaeangliae 2015 06-24 SB Channel-b-009
