<div>Greetings,</div>
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<div>I should have mentioned this earlier, but on the Memorial Day Condor Express trip, not only did we have quite a Humpback pec-slap session, but at the same time, perhaps 100 meters away, the Pacific White-siders were "going crazy." It was some kind of odd hot spot about 10 meters in diamter. The <em>Lag</em>s were getting airborne, 2, 3, 4 or more individuals going straight up 2 or 3 meters, at the same time....sometimes colliding head-to-head, or back-to-back...again, all in this one small spot. I did not see any evidence of feeding, bait jumping, or bait in the water. But I have seen inshore bottlenose dolphins do this, and I got the feeling (without any scientific evidence or peer review) there was some kind of courtship or pecking-order ritual going on.</div>
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<div>I've posted images of the jumping white-siders on my website under the "Condor Express Trip Photos" for Memorial Day (2008 05-26), and the bottlenose dolphin antics under "Odontocetes" then "<em>Tursiops,</em>" page 4. An image location map can be displayed on the Condor folder.</div>
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<div>Bob Perry</div>
<div><a href="http://www.marinebiophotography.com/">http://www.MarineBioPhotography.com</a><br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 1, 2008 at 12:16 PM, Linda Hitt <<a href="mailto:lhittnp@earthlink.net">lhittnp@earthlink.net</a>> wrote:<br>
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<div>12:00 trip: Humpbacks - 2, then 5, then 15 or more</div>
<div> Pacific White-sided Dolphin - 13 or more</div>
<div> About 4 miles off the coast from UCSB</div>
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<div>3:00 trip: Humpbacks - 5</div>
<div> Pacific White-sided Dolphin - 20 +</div>
<div> Bottle nosed Dolphin - 2</div>
<div> About 3 miles off the coast</div>
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<div>This was a sunny, warm day & one of the best whale days I have had. Capt Steve said that the first trip especially was one of his best. On both trips we found a large bait ball very close to the surface which attracted many species. The water was just full of life: Humpbacks, the dolphins, rafts of seal lions, pelicans, & gulls, all hungry. There were Humpbacks every where we looked. We saw several distant breaches, bubble netting, a beautiful lunge feed very close to the boat, 3 synchronized flukes. Flukes were not numerous because the whales didn't need to dive for their food. They also didn't play with the boat because they were so busy eating, but did come very close for some wonderful views.</div>
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<div>As usual there were passengers from all over the world & the US. Keith Hale & Anna Hilliard shared interpreting on this wonderful day with all of us.</div>
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<div>--- Linda Hitt</div>
<div>--- <a href="mailto:lhittnp@earthlink.net" target="_blank">lhittnp@earthlink.net</a></div>
<div>--- EarthLink: The #1 provider of the Real Internet.</div>
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