Whale Watching - Channel Islands, CA

anonymouscuban

Took a 4 hour boat ride out of Oxnard to go see some hump back whales. I wasn't expecting to see much so I was quite surprised when we spotted 4 or 5 of them. Here are some of my best shots. It was really tough to compose shots with the constant movement of the boat...



Another set of boaters heading out to take advantage of the beautiful weather:



My wife was excited and nervous at the same time; she's got a bit of fear of the ocean:



Soon after we left the marina we encountered some companions that stayed with us for the entire trip:








We didn't have to wait long before we spotted our first whale:



I couldn't believe how close we were able to get:



This guy (or gal) takes a dive down deeper to go catch some sardines and anchovies:







We spotted several others but this guy came in close and put on a show for us:















Eventually we had to part ways:



While we were having fun, others had to work:







We ran across a few of the more rowdy locals on the way back to shore:







As our day came to an end, it had just begun for others:

anonymouscuban

Ttt

Cuong

Good looking story. It was a nice day to enjoy the sea.

Cuong

scoox

Nice pics, I have been there in december:
http://smuller.jimdo.com/fotos/channel-islands-updated/

but we did not see a lot of the whales - however a lot of flippers and we camped on the island for one day - where the ranger gave us beer, wine & pizza

anonymouscuban

scoox wrote:

Nice pics, I have been there in december:
http://smuller.jimdo.com/fotos/channel-islands-updated/

but we did not see a lot of the whales - however a lot of flippers and we camped on the island for one day - where the ranger gave us beer, wine & pizza

Very cool Scoox. How do you like going out to the island and which one did you visit? We've never actually been on any of the island but we are considering a trip.

Dogdots

What a wonderful way to spend the day

leahe

Great whale shots. We just got back from Kauai and now I wish we would have taken the boat like we originally planned. The surf was pretty rough though. We saw some from the shore at our condo including one that breached. I wish I would have been closer for that one!

grimace

Nice looking set of photos.

Milan

Looks like you had a fun day!

koush

great shots
nice whale photos. Here in hervey Bay Queensland, we have the whales come very year. They come here to raise their young and to relax before continuing on their migration. This is the only place they do this, all other times they are " on the swim". At a speed of 7 knots, tough to keep up with. Last year we had between 6 and 8 whales around our boat, and they were well and truly just an arm length away. many of them would slide along the boat to scrape barnacles of themselves. There is usually 3-400 o them at any given time in the bay. Best time to see them is July to September

frewhl

I will try to send you a link to a story and photos about a pink dolphin in the Gulf Coast area,
The latest is, Killer wales in the Gulf of Mexico.http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287938,00.html