[CINC] CX 9/19/2009

[Kevin Bailey]

3 Blues Whales

2 Fin Whales

1 Minke Whale

200 + 800 Common Dolphins

Many groups of birds

An occasional sea lion

 

I was joined by Karen and Gary Sullivan today on the Condor Express voyage
which had us heading toward Anacapa Island where 3 blues were seen
yesterday.  It was a different direction than the “normal” blue or humpback
fall season trip but like we say, this is the wild ocean west and these
animals do  move. Today they were about 2 miles north of AI. We 1st saw the
blow in the distance, then a second blow.  It was cow/calf pair. We also saw
a 3rd blow of a blue but it headed east and we tried to stay with the
original two. The down cycles were quite long, yet normal (6-10 min) but in
that time frame they moved a lot. Each time they surfaced they were ¼ mile
away so it was a bit of cat and mouse on the water today.  We did get some
good views and were blessed with 2 blue whale flukes.

 

Shortly after seeing the 1st two 2 blues were also saw 2 fin whales that
were travelling next to each other.  They surfaced as we were headed toward
the blues and for a brief period we had 5 whales in our circle of vision.
But then the solo blue went its way and the 2 fins went their way and we
watched several breathing cycles of the pair of blues. The mother blue had a
very distinguishing look. It had a very distinctive indentation on the top
of the animal behind its head that was quite large and then a large hump
behind this indention. In talking with Dave, he said it was probably not a
ship strike because it appeared to be swimming and acting normal and had a
calf with it. It looked more like a deformity / birth defect. It would be
interesting to see what John Calambokidis has to say about this animal.

 

I talked to a couple from LA who had seen The Kingdom of the Blue Whale and
wanted to come to Santa Barbara to see blue whales. Interestingly enough, an
hour later we saw 3 blue whales, but even more interesting was that in the
same area we saw John Calambokidis in his orange jumpsuit in his skiff just
like on TV. They were quite thrilled!

 

The past President of ACS at National level was onboard with 4 of her
friends along with many from oversees. There were 2 groups of 2 from Holland
and when Karen introduced them to meet each other they discovered that they
live about 2 miles from each other. There were also visitors from Germany,
England (2 groups of 2 here too), Australia, and then the locals from
Moorpark, LA area and Bay area. Only 28 people today so everyone got plenty
of attention if they needed or wanted their own guide.  The Australians told
me that there has never been a better time to go to Australia than now with
the currency rate today for Americans. The folks from southern Australia
gave me tips about when to travel there and we discussed places I had seen
on Nat Geo that I had hoped to see some day.

 

Also making a Captain’s Appearance was a Minke that Karen saw but I most
others never saw. There were a total of close to 1000 Commons in 2 groups.
The first was thin and scattered and maybe 200 and the second group later in
the day were equally scattered and everywhere – lots of little tiny babies!
The birds today were tricking us because we saw many groups of Gulls,
Pelicans and Shearwaters all mixed together just sitting on the water but no
cetaceans nearby and they didn’t appear to be feeding but just hanging out.

 

Until next time,

Kevin Bailey

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