[CINC] June 2 Condor Express

[Christopher Carlson]

Good evening fellow naturalists!

Sorry for the delayed report guys! And sorry for the long entry; I like to
write and pretend to be funny a little too much.

On Monday, the Condor Express headed out with around 25 passengers, with
Marty Flam and myself, Chris Carlson, as amateur, energized, and carpooled
naturalists. We encountered around:

~ 15 Humpback Whales
~ 25 Pacific White-sided Dolphins
~ 5 Sea Otters

We left around 10 AM on the notion that it would be too windy to head out to
the islands. And indeed, we did not head out that deep. Instead we meandered
north along the coast while Captain Matt narrated a nice history of some
Santa Barbara landmarks. Most of the passengers made a whale watching
journey from the first time, with people from Los Angeles, Georgia, Florida,
England, and Wales! I just had to make a delicious pun about coming from
Wales to see the whales. Everyone rolled their eyes, but I had a good time.
:-)

Seriously 15 minutes into the trip we spotted a spout and made a good
journey northwest, sighting around 15 or so individuals humpback whales in
total. One had a scar near the dorsal fin, apparently from a net, while the
one whale who really liked to show its fluke had a very damaged tail,
speculated from a orca attack. But they all seemed to be swimming along just
fine! We eventually sighted just a few Pacific White-sided Dolphins, who had
fun bow-riding before they quickly disappeared. Pretty cool looking
creatures, I must say. We saw some kelp beds and managed to see a few sea
otters milling around in them, but we sped by there rather quickly. Oh, and
I must mention the vast amount of California Sea Lions we saw
just...everywhere! Particularly with the humpbacks. There was this one point
with five humpbacks near us, dozens of California Sea Lions jumping around
in their wake, and Sooty Shearwaters in the hundreds flying high in the sky
and along the surface of the water. It was a prime day to witness some
biodiversity!

We traveled just a bit past Platform Holly and waved at a few of the people
aboard the rig. It's pretty cool to see close up! One little boy really
enjoyed it. And then he went back to enjoying soaking his hand by dangling
it off the boat as it sped off. I...I had to join in for a bit of that! I'm
not made of stone; it looked kinda fun!

It was cloudy and kind of windy, but not terribly hot. A few of the England
people got seasick and had to spend the trip on the back of the boat. But
they managed to see a few Pacific White-sided Dolphins between lurches, so
hurray! A total loss was avoided!

The people were all very nice. I managed to learn that residents of Florida
are now very concerned about boating habits around manatee environments,
which is good news for my favorite slow-moving, Gulf of Mexico-residing sea
cow. I also learned to my slight delight that there is a "North Wales-South
Wales" rivalry similar to Northern California/Southern California culture
wars. Jolly fun!

Everyone seemed quite happy upon leaving the boat, and I got a few high
fives, handshakes, and hugs on the way off. One was slightly put off because
they thought they might see a beluga on the trip...don't know where they got
that idea! But I think they were cured of that upon seeing those humpback
whales less than 20 yards from the boat. It really awes you!

Another successful day for whale watchers around the world. What more could
a naturalist ask for?

Chris Carlson
chrisjamescarlson at gmail.com
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