[CINC] Jan 11, Whale Watching on CONDOR EXPRESS

[Dawn Ericson]

The whale watching trip on January 11, provided some unusual and 
exciting sightings for the 25 whale watchers and the Naturalist; 
Catherine French, John Kuizenga and Dawn Ericson aboard the Condor 
Express. As we crossed the channel, we missed the expected greetings of 
the Common Dolphins, but then Captain Mat spotted a single roaming 
Killer Whale about two mile of the coast of Santa Cruz Island. We were 
all hopeful to spot the Killer Whale's pod and fearful that any Killer 
Whales may have scared the Gray Whales far off the coastal waters. As we 
traveled onward, we spotted several small groups of 20 and 30 Risso's 
Dolphin intemixed with numerous curious sea lions. This was a wonderful 
sightling with close-in feeding activity. Some of the Risso's seemed to 
peer above the waves to catch eye-to-eye sightings with us. And a few 
Common Dolphin's finally came to greet us. As we were enjoying the 
minutes, suddenly Captain Mat pressed the throttle and we headed toward 
a large surface commotion of splashing and spraying. To everyone's 
hopeful expectations, gray whales came into sight: three gray whales 
"playing' on the surface, rolling, swimming on their backs and waving 
both pectoral flippers and tail flukes. Their activities were such a 
continuous frenzy we suspected that these were two males frolicking with 
a female. Towards the rear of the boat two more gray whales were also 
displaying playful courtship behaviors?

Heading homeward we spotted two other gray whales and John was finally 
able to get clear photo shots of thedorsal spine for identification. A 
wonderful day for all.

I Killer Whale, 7 Gray Whales, 40 Risso's Dolphins, 20 Common Dolphins 
and hundreds of Sea Lions.
Naturalist,
Dawn N. Ericson

www.mantapublications.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.rain.org/pipermail/channel_islands_naturalist_corps/attachments/20120112/e992fce2/attachment-0001.html>