[CINC] Orcas Today! Condor Express Detailed Report

[L Charleboix]

Condor Express 12-16-2010 Report
1000 Common Dolphins
7 Orcas
500 Common Dolphins

At the start of the trip, Captain Mat said he received an Orca sighting report 
and that we were headed to look for them. About an hour and a half into our 
journey to find the Orcas, we sighted about a thousand Common Dolphins. About 20 
minutes later, we found the 7 Orcas. I think Captain Mat said he thought the 
group might include a young juvenile, an older juvenile, an adult male, a 
younger adult male, and three females. The Orcas milled around the boat, often 
coming toward the boat and then diving under the boat and surfacing on the other 
side. Once one of the Orcas came close to the boat and made a very interesting 
sound for about a minute that sounded a lot like “blowing a raspberry.” Often at 
least two of the Orcas were spotted with pieces of food in their mouth. We spent 
about 45 minutes with the Orcas before they took a long dive and then 
disappeared. We went the direction they were going and soon found about 500 
Common Dolphins. After that, we travelled West close to Santa Cruz Island. It 
was a great time to answer questions, show the Orca tooth and Gray Whale baleen, 
let visitors borrow the whale guides with the Orca pages marked, and point to 
interesting features on the island, including the hikers to show that hiking and 
camping is awesome on the islands and the wave cut terraces (AKA marine cut 
terraces) as a starting point to share some of the amazing geology features of 
the islands. Oh and the almost perfectly flat water and relatively warm weather 
made the day even better!

Leeza Charleboix
CINC Volunteer  



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: L Charleboix <l_charleboix at yahoo.com>
To: CINC INFO RAIN <channel_islands_naturalist_corps at rain.org>
Sent: Thu, December 16, 2010 2:07:14 PM
Subject: [CINC] Orcas Today! Condor Express

7 Orcas
1000 Common Dolphins
500 Common Dolphins

Beautiful day! Will send a more detailed email tonight too. Pictures available 
on Condor Express Facebook.

Leeza Charleboix


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