[CINC] Friday 8/14 Condor eX thrills

[Paul Jr. Petrich]

WOW!!
 The kids on the Condor X certainly did have an extended thrill! I was with about a crew of 10 kids today from the California Conservation Corps cleaning up a local creek in Goleta with Channel Keepers. These kids, all from Ventura County, to a person, have never been on a boat; let alone a whale watch boat. They work cleaning creeks from Goleta all the way to Zuma Beach. They had no clue that the plastics, and other debris, which they have been picking up, could end up in the ocean endangering fish and marine mammals: honest. They sure do a good job. It would be nice if they could get to see what they are protecting, some day, some how? Their Camarillo Center, is really in El Rio, Oxnard.  Paul

Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:05:57 -0700
From: camccleskey at yahoo.com
To: channel_islands_naturalist_corps at rain.org
Subject: [CINC] Friday 8/14 Condor eX thrills

Yes, we saw a few dolphins, a mom calf Blue pair and other Blues in the area,
including a fluking one, but the best was the pair of Humpbacks that did all
the tricks in their repertoire, breaching within 25 yds of the boat, tail lobbing
together as if they were sparring, trumpeting, covering us with whale snot,
then swimming close together around and under the boat, scratching their
bodies on the hull, spyhopping, rolling within 2 feet of the boat, and just having
so much fun that the passengers had to keep running around the boat to keep 
up, for a solid 50 minutes.  Truly one of the top five memorable sightings, I
have had in 13 years, or Matt in his 15 years.  Marilyn D. on photo I.D., but they
were too close to film except for fun frames.  Paul Froemming and I had to field
lots of
 questions from the excited passengers, and Capt. Dave took his turn at the helm while D.J.  did his best taking care of the crowd. 
The kids on board especially were thrilled by the idea that probably no one 
they knew had ever been that close to a whale !  
I am so grateful to be a part of CINC and share this with the public.  Carolyn




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