Whale Watching in the Santa Barbara Channel

humpback tail side view, barnacles

In late September, my daughter and I joined a whale watching trip with The Nature Conservancy (TNC) out of Santa Barbara Harbor. TNC is working on collaborative ways to protect ocean resources and coastal communities, demonstrating what innovative ocean management can look like. (See the end of this post for a link to TNC’s California oceans program.) We spent half a day on our trip, traversing the Santa Barbara Channel between the mainland and Santa Cruz Island.  

The channel is a rich marine environment. According to the Santa Barbara Channel Whale Heritage organization, it is one of the more biologically productive marine ecosystems on the planet, due to water circulation and upwelling in the channel. This dynamic system provides an attractive food source for cetaceans and other marine life. Because of this richness, the Channel is a designated Whale Heritage Area. (See the end of this post for a link to the Santa Barbara Channel Whale Heritage Area website.)

During our trip, we saw several humpback whales and hundreds of common dolphin. They appeared to be feeding on large schools of anchovies that were in the channel. Some of the humpbacks were curious, repeatedly approaching our ship. (See the photos here of a humpback duo and solo.)

humpback duo, arching backs

solo humpback

It was interesting to see details on the whales as they surfaced. For example, in the image below you can see how they roll forward into their dives. This rounding of the back as they prepare to dive is what gives them their “humpback” name. Notice also the whale’s small dorsal fin, which seems out of place, given the huge overall size of humpback whales – they can grow up to 60 feet long and weigh up to 40 tons – and their very large pectoral fins.

humpback profile, rolling into dive

And we could clearly hear them exhale as they surfaced, expelling their prior breath of air to make room for a new one. It happens fairly quickly, meaning they need a good-sized blow hole to quickly expel old air. You can see that in the following image.

humpback blowhole

After catching their breath on the surface, the whales would dive, flashing their tails just before fully submerging. Humpbacks are known for their distinctive tails. The underside of a humpback’s tail has a unique pattern, said to be as individual as human fingerprints. Marine biologists use tail images to identify and track individual whales. There is a citizen-scientist website, the Happy Whale – great name! – which collects photos submitted by people all over the world, to track whales. I submitted several of my photos to them after our trip, and they got back to me identifying some of the whales we saw. (I’ve provided a link to their website, below.)

For example, here is an image I took of a whale identified as the “Calf of Chompers.” Per the Happy Whale, it was first spotted only in 2021. To date, it has been spotted as far north as the Santa Barbara Channel, where we saw it, and as far south as offshore from Puerto San Carlos, in Baja, California. I liked the pattern of circles on its tail; it reminded me of the Olympics symbol!

Calf of Chompers

Some humpbacks travel far greater distances. Here is an image I took of a whale that was later identified as number CRC-12204. It was first spotted 16 years ago, in 2008, and in the years since has been seen as far north as Monterey Bay and as far south as Nicaragua.

humpback tail (ID CRC-12204)

Another journeying whale we spotted is one identified as CRC-12172. It was first spotted in 2006 in Costa Rica, and has been seen as far north as the Farallon Islands, off of San Francisco. So they get around! They also can live up to 80-90 years, about the same lifespan as we humans. Traveling thousands of miles a year over an 80-year lifespan adds up to a lot of mileage!  

Here’s an image I took of CRC-12172 as it dives next one of its pod mates.

CRC-12172

It’s interesting, as the underside of its tail is almost all white, in contrast to the Calf of Chompers, whose tail was almost all black, outside of its white rings. This is a small sample size, but even within it you can see the great variety of coloration and markings of humpback tails.

They also swim close to one another at times, as you can see from this picture of two whales looking as though they’re waving to one another.

humpbacks waving to each other

We also saw hundreds of dolphin on our trip. At times they were very active, surfing the bow wave of our ship.  I shot this image looking straight down from the bow of our ship at a pair of dolphin riding the pressure wave of our ship as it pushed through the water.

dolphin off bow

We also saw dolphin moving rapidly, at times leaping all the way out of the water. Here’s an image of a group of dolphin, with what looks to be a baby dolphin jumping clear.

jumping dolphin

The dolphin were feeding on the same massive schools of anchovies that had attracted the humpbacks.  

All in all it was an eventful trip. In reality we really only saw the whales and dolphins in just a brief snapshot of time. They have lives underneath the water that we did not even see, and, given the migratory paths of the humpbacks, they spend only part of their lives in the Santa Barbara Channel. In essence, we saw just a tiny snippet of their lives, but it was eventful nonetheless.

*Photography Note:   I should note that I am not a wildlife photographer. My usual landscape and macro photography is almost a meditative process for me. I move calmly and deliberately as I try to frame an image. I often take long exposures, meaning the camera is motionless on a tripod and the shutter is open for a long period of time. I love to take my time and carefully compose an image.  

Wildlife photography is entirely different. It moves quickly and unpredictably, such that fast  shutter speeds are the norm. Outside of my wave images, this type of rapid imagery is not something I do much of. But I viewed this whale watching trip as an opportunity for me to be out on the water on a beautiful fall day, trying to capture images of some of the marine mammals who showed themselves that day. I’m glad to have done it!

Here are a couple closing images, followed by links to information sources you might find interesting. Thanks for reading.

dolphin trio

humpback, diving

Blog Notes:

• For information on The Nature Conservancy’s California oceans program, check here:

  https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/california/stories-in-california/california-oceans-program/
  

• For more information on the whale heritage area, see the organization’s website:  https://www.sbwhaleheritage.org/

  
  

• For more on citizen scientist whale identification efforts, see:  https://happywhale.com/home/