Humpback whale eating without looking

Wow, whale watching off Santa Barbara’s coast is amazing right now. On Saturday, ACS/LA hosted their Summertime Blues Whale Watch Adventure aboard the Condor Express and we watched whales galore lunge feeding on mass amounts of krill in the Santa Barbara Channel. Every where we looked there was either a humpback whale or a blue whale doing something…mostly eating krill. It was glorious!

There were also a few sea lions in on the action having a great time porpoising and coming up to check out the boat. And at the end of the trip we saw a basking shark, that was really cool because I’ve seen one in the wild before. The basking shark deserves its own post soon.

Blue whale lunge feeding

The above photo is of a humpback whale cruising forward after a lunge feeding maneuver. Check out the closed eye…I wonder why it’s closed. Maybe the whale is so relaxed near the boat it doesn’t have to worry about keeping an eye on all the crazed whale watchers. Or maybe whales close their eyes while eating. This is the second photo I’ve seen of a closed eye whale during lunge feeding. Or maybe they don’t like to dry out their eyes during windy conditions at the surface. I guess we’ll never know the answer.

Regardless, if you have the opportunity, go whale watching! Seeing whales up close in the wild is something everyone should do during their lifetime. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to the coasts and Captain Mat Curto commented that less than one percent of people in the world get to see a blue whale. That’s just too bad. But for those living near the coast in Southern California take advantage of the opportunity to go whale watching…you won’t regret it. Although, if you do get seasick definitely talk to your doctor about what you can do, there are many solutions out there for that troubled inner ear.