Out of the Blue : Humpbacks and Other Endangered Whale Species Making Rare Appearances Off Santa Barbara Coast

Captain Fred Benko set his usual course, for the west end of Santa Cruz Island, largest of the Channel Islands chain, where, he tells his passengers, they probably will encounter “the largest creatures ever to inhabit the Earth.”

Aboard the Condor, an 88-foot vessel of considerable bulk, are 98 passengers, a full tank of gas and enough food to feed a small army. Still, Benko warns over the public-address system as the boat leaves the dock at Santa Barbara Harbor’s SEA Landing: “Just one of these animals is probably longer and weighs more than this entire craft.”

But all of the passengers want to go, nonetheless. They want to see for themselves if what they have heard is true--that there are blue and humpback whales frolicking in large numbers only two hours out of Santa Barbara.

After all, both of these whales are on the endangered-species list. Most people, including those who spend a great deal of time at sea, go their entire lives without seeing a blue or humpback whale.

Benko and crew, however, claim to have spent the past six weeks treating their passengers--on fishing and whale-watching trips alike--to this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Mike Davidson, 14, an aspiring skipper who has worked on the Condor for much of the year, claims that he counted 16 whales in one day. Ron Hart, 39, who is skipper of the Condor when Benko isn’t, says he had not seen a blue or humpback whale in his first five years on the boat but adds: “This year, I’ve seen four dozen--easily.”

Benko tells his passengers: “In my 20 years on the water, I’ve never seen anything like it. Every year, we see one, maybe two humpbacks or blue whales, but never enough to feel comfortable to make regular (whale-watching) trips.”

John Calambokidis, a research biologist with Cascadia Research, an Olympia, Wash.-based group that studies marine mammals, has been monitoring the whales around the Channel Islands for the past two weeks.

Calambokidis says the whales are feeding on krill, a small planktonic crustacean that has been concentrating in the area. He adds that the presence of so many blue and humpback whales in such a small area is considered unusual, but not rare.

“It seems that every five or six years, the animals on occasion do show in high concentrations . . . around krill,” Calambokidis says. “In 1986, a large number showed in the late fall off Monterey Bay, and through 1990 we saw high concentrations along the gulf of the Farallon (Islands) and Bodega Bay.”

Now they are off Santa Barbara. And Benko’s passengers are an enthusiastic lot. They crowd the bow and both rails of the Condor, some with binoculars, others with cameras.

The sun is warm and the ocean calm, the vessel rocking gently over the slow, rolling swells. The smell of bacon escapes the galley and fills the air. For some, this is too much. They walk queasily to the nearest relief, only to discover that true relief won’t come until they step off the boat hours later.

The Condor, meanwhile, glides into the middle of the channel. Santa Cruz Island comes into view.

Benko brings up El Nino, the warm-water phenomenon he credits for bringing the whales to the area. “We’ve also been seeing several species of dolphins and porpoises, and the largest flying fish I have ever seen in this area,” Benko adds.

As he speaks, a flying fish is frightened into flight off the starboard bow. It glides slightly above the surface for 50 yards before plopping back into the water. Another jumps and flies off the port side.

But still there are no whales, and the west end of Santa Cruz is less than a mile away. Benko begins to wonder if the huge mammals finally have ventured north, where it is believed they will soon go. He offers to buy a drink for the passenger who makes the first sighting.

Suddenly, Judy Bragg, a traveling nurse, cries out, “Over there!” and points to an area about a half-mile off the port rail.

Thar she blows!

A blue whale, big as life, is moving through the water as if it hasn’t a care in the world, its massive back, light gray, emerging and submerging ever so slowly as it travels southeast along the coast of Santa Cruz Island.

“What’s really cool is to see one right at the surface; the water turns, like, light blue,” young Davidson says.

Benko is careful not to approach the whale too hastily. “I just know these whales talk to each other,” he says. “If we are too aggressive with this first one, then we might not see any others.”

As the passengers marvel at the creature, which is puffing plumes of mist 30 feet into the air as it surfaces every few minutes, Benko offers some facts about blue whales:

“They’re not, like, a little bit bigger than anything else; they’re immensely bigger than anything else. An African elephant weighs about 5 1/2 tons. Well, the tongue of a blue whale is larger than an African elephant. And the heart of a blue whale, it’s about the same size as a Volkswagen.”

This titanic-tongued, large-hearted whale decides to leave the Condor, disappearing from view. But another surfaces less than 50 yards off the starboard rail, blowing a cloud of mist that floats over the bow and well past the passengers before dissipating in the distance. “The coolest thing is when you get misted by the spout,” Davidson offers. “It stinks, but it’s cool.”

Benko, who has studied these peaceful creatures of the sea, tells the passengers: “That air that you see coming out of the blowhole--it comes out at about 300 m.p.h.”

Between breaths, as the whale lies suspended slightly beneath the surface, the water isglowing a light, iridescent blue, almost aquamarine.

Other blue whales are spouting in the distance. Benko heads toward the area, and the Condor is joined by a school of Dall’s porpoises, small and sleek mammals, which race to the bow and dart into and out of sight. The passengers on the bow and at the rails have their eyes fixed on the lively sea.

One thing had become apparent: Everything Benko had said, and what he had advertised, was true: Blue whales, some measuring 100 feet and weighing 100 tons, are alive and apparently well in the waters off Santa Barbara.

The humpback whales aren’t anywhere to be seen, but there is no reason to doubt that they had been in the vicinity, which Benko had described as “an aquatic park” of sorts.

“I’ve been out here five or six times looking for gray whales (which migrate seasonally up and down the West Coast), and I haven’t seen one yet,” says Sharon Webb, 55, a pastry delivery driver from Carpinteria. Now she had seen five or six blue whales, in one day.

This is a creature that, along with the humpback, once was hunted nearly to extinction--one that is still protected from hunters and watchers alike. According to the Marine Mammal Act, it is illegal to harass the animals in any way. Benko’s strategy has been to remain at some distance, idle and hope that the whales come in for a closer look at the Condor, which they often do.

Little is known about the populations of either species. Cascadia Research is in the process of attempting to make an accurate assessment. Calambokidis warns that the presence of so many of the mammals does not necessarily signal a comeback, but he does say that their presence is a good sign.

In two weeklong trips to the Channel Islands recently, Cascadia has identified 100 or more blue or humpback whales on each trip. “There have been more blues lately,” Calambokidis says. “We’re now finding scattered concentrations over a very broad region between Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz Island. At least we know there are more whales than we suspected along the California coast.”

Whale-watching trips aboard the Condor, at $50 a ticket, can be arranged by calling SEA Landing at (805) 963-3564.