[CINC] Condor X-8/26

[Paul Petrich]

Hello Ocean People,
 Today Captains Mat and Dave took 60 passengers on an excursion eastward along the coast into Ventura County. But, within 3 miles from the harbor Captain Mat had us alongside a a huge school of fish that seemed to have attracted a mega flock of Shearwaters, as well as at least 500 Common Dolphin, plus lots of active sea lions. We spotted a breaching Humpback farther east, and off shore  Montecito came upon a Humpback cow and her juvenile calf. The pair casually swam in calm seas most of the time, but the calf spy hopped many times, and did about 5  breaches for our excited passengers. The mom fluked a few times as well.
 Captains Dave and Mat took us east to La Conchita, and along the way we witnessed another feeding frenzy supporting a 1,000 mega pod of Commons, and hundreds of Shearwaters within 2 miles of shore. On the way home we ran into our friendly cow and calf pair of Humpbacks again.
 The weather was vintage Santa Barbara and Ventura! The many European tourist on the boat loved the crystal clear tour along our "riviera". The many young kids aboard were thrilled by the dolphin antics, and were quick to notice over half of the dolphins were babies and juveniles. 
 Tara Brown shared the interpretation chores with me and Carolyn McCleskey did the PID with great expertise, using her own I-Pad for the sighting report! Yours truly wished Captain Mat a warm goodbye, but I was happy to hear that he will remain on our Sanctuary Advisory Council throughout the rest of his term. He will remain afloat on our SB Channel waters.
 The next report from yours truly, and Tara Brown, will be from the islands and channels off the Croatian coast.  Paul Petrich
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