Close Encounter with a Grey Whale at Santa Barbara Harbor
'This Guy Was So Cool'
Quincy Briscoe sent a short video to the Independent of an encounter with a grey whale near Santa Barbara Harbor on Thursday afternoon.
“We were in a little inflatable dingy, going from one boat to another, when we saw an unmistakable blow out on the horizon, over by Stearns Wharf. We just had to go investigate,” Briscoe said.
“We went out into the channel and just floated. This guy was so cool. He was coming up, and you could tell he was grabbing big mouths of sand and spitting it out. Surfing down below and chilling out,” Briscoe said, elation still in his voice from the encounter.
Briscoe has worked for a decade out of Santa Barbara Harbor as a captain on various boats and had been checking on the harbor boats as part of his management company, Top Tier Yachts. In all the years of whale watching, he said, “I’ve never had such a peaceful, close encounter with a grey whale.”
