[CINC] CX 8/11/2012

[Kevin Bailey]

3 Minke whales of which 2 we actually saw a bit of

3 humpbacks including a cow/calf pair that came to the boat

Dolphins scattered everywhere like the past few weeks 2500+

All types of sea birds scattered everywhere 

Never a time when a dolphin or bird was not either up close or in sight at a
distance

 

The Humpback pair was really a great sighting. We were with a solo humpback
only 2-3 miles off Faria Beach Park in Ventura for quite some time and saw
another humpback in closer to shore. After spending some time with the solo,
we headed over to see the other whale and discovered there were 2. The
mother had a calf with her that was fairly small yet had some barnacles on
its rostrum and lots of scaring and a very distinctive dorsal fin. I got
good photos of the 2 adult flukes but the baby never fluked so I took close
pictures of the cow/calf pair both together and separate of the 2 dorsal
fins so they could be matched up and hopefully tracked later. Capt Dave and
I discussed whether the dorsal was an injury or just not fully developed.
There were signs that the calf was on the younger side but then Dave agreed
it was hard to tell. I just took as many dorsal individual shots as well as
shots with the mother so hopefully we will see them next year and be able to
identify them. After 1 long down time the baby came right at the bow and
surfaced 2 feet from the boat with mom watching closely and then they swam
away. There were also several sea lions, 2 of which followed / harassed the
cow/calf humpbacks for longer than they were welcome. We also got a couple
of wiffs of some good whale breath. All this action was just 2-3 miles just
off Faria Beach.

 

The crowd was one of the more pleasant crowds - maybe since we were never
more than 5 miles from shore and it was calm and flat so no one got sick.
The boat was a total sell out with mostly out of country folks from the UK,
Spain, Canada, China, Netherlands, France as well as NY, KS and "locals"
from SB, Ventura, LA area and SD area. Everyone super nice and friendly.
Several large groups: a group of about 15 from all over the world here for a
physics meeting and a group of 25 from China visiting UCSB.

 

Kevin Bailey, PID

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