[CINC] IPCO 6/16/12- another awesome day

[Linda Hitt]

Official count with more spouts around:

Blues - 2
Humpbacks - 10
Common Dolphin - 2 megapods
California sea lions everywhere
One huge bird feeding frenzy
Mylar balloon retrieval - 7

I can only agree & add to all the superlatives of the past few days!  It was a 
real day to remember.  The ocean condition was perfect, the sun was shining most 
of the time, the water was clear & beautiful.  After we reached the same area as 
reported by the Condor Express north of the East end of SRI we basically idled & 
drifted for 2 hours while watching all the fantastic activity around us.  We 
really couldn't move because the whales were so close.  There were many sea 
lions among them seemingly vying for our attention.  There must have been a huge 
food supply at that spot with nonstop lunge feeding.  The Humpbacks made many 
approaches to the boat, going under & coming up on the other side.  We had great 
views of the mouths, baleen, grooves.  In addition to the many flukes we enjoyed 
an extended tail lobbing exhibit.  An amazing new sight for me was seeing the 
Blue on the surface turn on its side with short white pectoral fin up in the 
air, fluke showing, while lunge feeding!  This happened several times.  We could 
get a much clearer clue about the true size of that beautiful creature.  The 
Blue also pooped for us, showing the red evidence of its krill diet.  


What a HIGH!!

Also enjoying the day was the great crew of Jimmy, Laurie, & Andrea along with 
my wonderful fellow CINC partner Tamara Thompson.
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