[CINC] Condor Express 6/17

[in]

7 Humpbacks
1 Minke
2-3000 Commons
Lots of birds

With wind and small craft warnings further out in the channel, Capt. Mat went looking for humpbacks closer to home. Good call! Under June Gloom skies, 3 MNs were spotted. The trio broke into a single whale that the Condor followed for a while, and observed this one frolicking in the kelp. The other two were intercepted on the way north, towards UCSB, where reports from another ship indicated at least 4 MNs. Somewhere in transit, the Minke did a classic Minke appearance... brief. Oh, by the way, common dolphins were appearing almost continuously in view in small, moderate and almost large pods.

The second view started with what appeared to be a large mom and her calf breaching. I counted 4 mom breaches and one baby. The Condor arrived on the scene to witness brilliant vertical lunge feeding... several times! The other 2 MNs were similarly at work about a half a mile away.

Be sure to check out Bob Perry's photos because one of these whales did a weird "behavior". Was it a lunge, a breach? you decide.

Good folks from India, Denmark, Germany, some Eastern European country and guess what... even a group from Santa Barbara!

Cpt. Mat at the helm, Eric and Tasha tending to the crowd (about 40) and providing what should be $25 CondorBurgers. Interpretting duties accomplished by Debbie Shellie and Roberta Sota and, yours truly on PID. Not to many flukes today, but just about everything else!!!

Gary Delanoeye
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