Goin’ Back to Cali: Whaling Days

On March 18 and April 1 I went whaling with friends and family members.

Click on any of the pictures on this page to see a larger version.

March 18 was very sunny. April 1 was more drizzly weather, but we saw a good set of whales.

These dolphins tried to attack our boat. Luckily, we managed to fend them off.

Here they are, coming at us from underneath.

There’s a pod of maybe 2,000 common dolphins offshore between Ventura Harbor and Anacapa Island. They’re really amazing to watch as they cavort around the boat, filling hundreds of yards in every direction, leaping and arcing and playing, dodging underwater, playing in the boat wake, then leaping again. Like some other mammals, dolphins genuinely seem to have a highly developed sense of play.

Here are some fellows who are assigned the job of protecting Oil Platform Gilda.

We saw all kinds of wildlife out there, including mollusks some divers brought up from the bottom. After lunch, as we headed in, birds would float in the boat’s stern slipstream.

Finally, some whales.

The first day, we saw several whales.

The second day, we followed a set of three for a while.

The whales never leaped out of the water. But we saw lots of backs and fins.

This whale looked as if it was injured, which might explain why it was sticking to the surface more than the whales we saw the first day.

On March 23, a big pod of orcas (killer whales) was spotted off Newport Beach, not too far south of here, keeping an eye on a tasty-looking gray whale. The wounded whale here, photographed April 1, may have met some of these orcas.

On the way back in, you stop by the buoy at the harbor entrance and say hello to the guys who watched your car in the parking lot while you were out having fun.

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