Whale watching in Santa Barbara
Catching a glimpse of a majestic humpback whale in the Santa Barbara Channel may be priceless for marine life enthusiasts, but The Times' Pete Thomas reports that for under $100, you can get a front-row seat:
It's a bizarre yet wondrous sight: a 40-foot humpback whale holding position only a few feet beside a 75-foot catamaran.
The whale's radiant white pectoral fins are spread like wings. Its massive body rolls gently as this great leviathan casts a curious glance toward its gawking admirers.
It's one of two "friendlies" providing passengers aboard the Condor Express with encounters so close they can hardly believe their eyes.
These are lively times in the Santa Barbara Channel. Vast blooms of krill and nutrient-rich waters teeming with bait fish have attracted dozens of mammalian species, including humpback and blue whales.
The high-speed Condor Express -- the only vessel making daily forays deep into the channel -- can reach the feeding grounds in less than an hour.
Several minutes pass before a large splash in the distance. Soon the vessel is alongside two humpbacks. Passengers crowd the rails and camera shutters click.
"I finally have proof!" shouts a gleeful Jeffrey Mummey, 11, from Heath, Ohio, explaining that his cousin Nick, who is not aboard, "never believes me when I tell him stuff."
Globally, humpbacks number 35,000 to 40,000. The ones Thomas and his boat mates saw measure 40 to 50 feet and weigh about 40 tons and are among the perhaps 1,300 that migrate between Costa Rica and California.
--Francisco Vara-Orta
Photo: Eric Zimmerman
I've enjoyed plenty of trips on the Condor Express over the years. Always fabulous things to see (though I've still never seen a breaching whale up close). I'm a huge fan of the large pods of dolphins we see.
The American Cetacean Society also sponsors several full day trips on the Condor Express - twice the time at sea for about the same price (and proceeds go to protect whales).
It's really one of those ideal "Staycations". Full disclosure, I volunteer for the ACS.
I'm planning on going next Saturday the 12th.
Posted by: cybele | July 04, 2008 at 03:47 PM