[CINC] Speed Twin 5/31/08

[Mr Zalophus]

Greetings,

I should have mentioned this earlier, but on the Memorial Day Condor Express
trip, not only did we have quite a Humpback pec-slap session, but at the
same time, perhaps 100 meters away, the Pacific White-siders were "going
crazy."   It was some kind of odd hot spot about 10 meters in diamter.  The
*Lag*s were getting airborne, 2, 3, 4 or more individuals going straight up
2 or 3 meters, at the same time....sometimes colliding head-to-head, or
back-to-back...again, all in this one small spot.  I did not see any
evidence of feeding, bait jumping, or bait in the water.  But I have seen
inshore bottlenose dolphins do this, and I got the feeling (without any
scientific evidence or peer review) there was some kind of courtship or
pecking-order ritual going on.

I've posted images of the jumping white-siders on my website under the
"Condor Express Trip Photos" for Memorial Day (2008 05-26), and the
bottlenose dolphin antics under "Odontocetes" then "*Tursiops,*" page
4.   An image location map can be displayed on the Condor folder.

Bob Perry
http://www.MarineBioPhotography.com <http://www.marinebiophotography.com/>

On Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 12:16 PM, Linda Hitt <lhittnp at earthlink.net> wrote:

>  12:00 trip: Humpbacks - 2, then 5, then 15 or more
>                    Pacific White-sided Dolphin - 13 or more
>                    About 4 miles off the coast from UCSB
>
> 3:00 trip:  Humpbacks - 5
>                   Pacific White-sided Dolphin - 20 +
>                   Bottle nosed Dolphin - 2
>                   About 3 miles off the coast
>
> This was a sunny, warm day & one of the best whale days I have had.  Capt
> Steve said that the first trip especially was one of his best.  On both
> trips we found a large bait ball very close to the surface which attracted
> many species.  The water was just full of life: Humpbacks, the dolphins,
> rafts of seal lions, pelicans, & gulls, all hungry.  There were Humpbacks
> every where we looked.  We saw several distant breaches, bubble netting, a
> beautiful lunge feed very close to the boat, 3 synchronized flukes.  Flukes
> were not numerous because the whales didn't need to dive for their food.
> They also didn't play with the boat because they were so busy eating, but
> did come very close for some wonderful views.
>
> As usual there were passengers from all over the world & the US.  Keith
> Hale & Anna Hilliard shared interpreting on this wonderful day with all of
> us.
>
>
> --- Linda Hitt
> --- lhittnp at earthlink.net
> --- EarthLink: The #1 provider of the Real Internet.
>
>
>
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