11 North Bound 4 Calves 0 South Bound 9.5 hrs

April 12th, 2023 Wednesday

Cloudy, overcast with FOG and mid morning light rain. First sighting was a cow/calf pair with an escort 1800 yards out. The solo escort whale was an underweight adult. The calf alternated sides with each surfacing and stopped to spyhop several times surfacing in all directions. White scar lines along the left side of calf indicate possible propeller injury. The calf’s throat area has darker patches and an overall more mottled pigment pattern.

By-the-wind Sailors (Velella velella) continue to wash ashore en masse. The whales migrate through large swatches of these plankton eating Hydrozoa colonies, seemingly, without concern.

The second sighting of the day was another cow/calf pair. The cow was underweight with a protruding scapula seen in flat glassy water. The calf has an interesting identification patch that looks like a capital letter “B” or a square shaped number “8”.

The third sighting was a cow/calf pair ~300 yards behind the second sighting. This pair was very active with a small calf traveling on top of the mother, sliding on and off changing directions to get back up with visible tail swashing to keep up migrating at the pace of the mother. The fourth sighting was the fourth cow/calf pair on same path behind the second and third sighting moving at much faster pace. All three pairs traveled through at this steady faster pace.

The temperature dropped to 58 with increased wind towards sunset. The last two sightings were solo whales seen as a foggy marine layer drifted towards shore and up into the canyons. Light rain and increased winds and a rough choppy surf. Too dark to see which direction the whale was headed or if it was with a calf and too low light for any photos. At the last moment the sun popped below the marine layer just as it set. Dozen pelicans on shore in the wet sand.

*** REW: 2 unidentified whales were seen early this morning by several CSU-CI (California State University Channel Islands) students along with the professor during a field trip.