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Rare whale sighting in Catalina channel

Mikebat

Member III
It took me a while to identify it, but I am pretty sure that we sighted two Sei Whales Sunday at around noon, about 10NM south of Angel's gate on my way back from Avalon. Link: http://www.acsonline.org/factpack/SeiBrydesWhales.htm

The whales looked like they had a beak and a dome-like melon, I saw both whales surface and both looked the same. The largest was about 40 feet long and the companion was a bit smaller. The dome on the head of the lead whale was darker than his blue-grey body but the smaller whale was pretty uniformly blue-grey in color even on the head. I slowed way down as they were on a course that would cross mine, and I wanted to allow them to pass in front. They came within about 100 feet of the boat, and then both of them dove and we never saw them again. They did not show any flukes when they dove. I got many photos, but I was using my old-school Olympus OM-1 mechanical/chemical camera, so I have to get the film developed before I can post pictures (which I will).

My first thought was pilot whales, but when I got home I looked them up and pilot whales are way too small to be the whales we saw, which dwarfed my boat. After some Googling, I then thought maybe it was a rare Baird's beaked whale, and before I edited this post, I said as much. But after finding some videos of the beaked whales, now I doubt it. I think the domed forehead I thought I saw was the single ridge on the Sei whale's rostrum. The most telling sign I think was that they left a circle of smooth water behind when they dove, and did not show their flukes. This perfectly matches the description at the link above. I wish I had taken a photo of the circle of smooth water, now that I know the significance of it.

All in all, great weekend, even though I mistakenly thought Bucanner Days was last weekend. Needless to say, there was no room to breathe, much less moor or anchor near Two Harbors, so we scooted down to Avalon and had the nicest sail we've had in a while, about 15 knots on our stern once we rounded Long Point, and we had a blast surfing into Avalon downwind. But there was no wind to speak of any other time. Even Hurricane alley was looking pretty glassy when we arrived at around 3:00pm today.
 
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Mikebat

Member III
So I am back from vacation, and picked up the photos. Here are the best ones. Clearly, they are Blue whales, which doesn't diminish the excitement at all of course. I was just surprised how not-overwhelmingly-large these two were and thought they might be the smaller Sei whale. The one I got photos of I thought wasn't but about 40-50 feet long. Maybe I misjudged the distance to him.
 

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