[CINC] Condor Express Saturday 8.16.09

[Carol Celic]

>From memory:

11 Humpbacks
6 Blues
80+ Risso's
100+ Commons

Fellow naturalists: Pat Hart & Barbara LaCorte <sp> PID

Crew: Captains Matt and Dave, Jacque

145 Passengers 

Yet another amazing trip aboard the Condor Express. To start I had a gentleman asked me a question about Xantus's Murrelets and I immediately recognized him as one of my favorite Animal Planet/Discovery Channel naturalists Nigel Marven! What a treat it was having him on board! He told me he'd never seen a Blue whale before. He is also quite an avid birder, so I let the crew know he was on board and they invited him to the bridge and up top. He was so nice and shared some of his favorite adventures and experiences.  

We first came upon a few Commons and then continued to head out towards Santa Rosa Island. We came upon a large pod of Risso's and two Humpbacks feeding. The Humpbacks were trumpeting as the Risso's swam right along with them. The whales did a few deeper dives and then things got quiet. The Humps then stopped feeding and decided to come people watch for almost an hour! They stayed right next to the boat going from one side of the boat to the other spy hopping a good portion of the time. They also rolled on their sides and showed off their ventral pleats, at times they'd hang out under the Condor as their pecs would appear from underneath. And of course they blew whale snot on us a few times. Then one of the whales dove and showed its' fluke, and Matt took that as a queue to go in search of other whales, when all of a sudden the other whale popped its' head out of the water a foot off the starboard side again for another look at us. So we had to wait
 another minute before heading off in search of Blues.

Now this is where my time line might become a little off as I don't have my notes with me. We came across a couple of Blues, 6 Humpbacks and more Risso's. The Risso's were jumping out of the water higher than any other dolphin I've seen in the ocean, in front of the Blues.  Then we came across a couple of 'racing' Blues making big splashes as their heads launched out of the water. 

We came across a few more Humpbacks, a couple of more Blues, more leaping Risso's and then a small pod of Commons came passing through!  We were surrounded by an amazing variety of cetaceans! Towards the end a Blue gave a nice wave of its' fluke, as four of the six now logging Humpbacks suddenly did the same thing in the other direction. That was our queue to head back to the harbor. 

On the way back we came across another pod of Commons that we did a quick spin around, as we were already running late getting back to Sea Landing.

I would love to be able have the pair of friendly Humpbacks PID photos compared to those I took of another pair very friendly Humps back in May. As the larger of the two had a distinct dorsal that wiggled like a bowl of Jello, a feature I remembered from one of the whales back in May.

As Spongebob Squarepants would say it was "The best day ever!" ;)  

Looking forward to doing PID on the Condor next Sunday! 

BTW, Nigel will be on the Condor again on Saturday, so if you are one of the lucky naturalists on board please take the opportunity to meet him.

Cheers!

Carol Celic         

Sent from my iPhone