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construction on the Condor Express in 2002, and launched the 75-ft
twin-hulled, four-engine, 740-horsepower diesel powerhouse in February
of 2003. It took three hours to reach Santa Rosa Island in the old Condor;
the Condor Express catamaran – built strictly for excursions, whale
watching, and party cruises – makes it in 45 minutes, which opened all
kinds of new possibilities for Benko.
Although sport fishing in the Santa Barbara area was lucrative, Fred
says he “saw the handwriting on the wall.” He guessed, correctly, that
setting aside reserves and sanctuaries for fish replenishment would remove
many fishing areas from the fleet. It did. “The guys that are still in the
charter fishing business today for the most part are really struggling. They
are just hanging on,” Fred observes.
The salmon eventually stopped coming to the Santa Barbara Channel,
but fortunately, particularly for Fred, that’s almost the precise time the
whales began returning.
Oil companies had three or four seismic ships working the Santa
Barbara Channel at the same time. Their job was to produce a long-
wavelength low-frequency boom – with dynamite – in order to penetrate
down to where the oil-bearing areas were.
“It just so happens that’s the place where the blue whales
communicate,” Fred notes. “[The whales] have a real low-frequency, long-
wavelength call. It’s the loudest call made by anything in nature, by any
animal. It can travel,” he speculates, “perhaps thousands of miles. So I
think what the oil companies were doing was irritating to them. We just
didn’t have any blue whales, and very few humpbacks during those years.
[The oil companies] stopped the seismic exploration in ‘89, and in the
early ‘nineties we began to see more and more blue whales. And we’ve had
more whales every year since; they’ve rediscovered the channel.”
A blue whale generally runs from about 85 to 90 feet long – the
females are larger than the males and weigh over 150 tons – and is
the largest creature on Earth; the largest that has ever lived. And, each
consumes up to four tons of krill a day.
“There were times this summer when we had over one hundred blue
whales in the Santa Barbara Channel,” Fred marvels.
Blue whales aren’t the only attraction in the Santa Barbara Channel:
there are humpback whales, Minke whales, Fin whales, orcas… 27
different kinds of whales and dolphins at last count, and Captain Fred
Benko and his crew can get to them in less than 45 minutes. In fact, Fred
guarantees that you’ll see a whale on a Condor Express whale watching
expedition. If not, you get a free makeup ticket.
Fred still hasn’t fully retired yet, so the next time you have visitors
from out of town, bring them out to the Sea Landing in Santa Barbara
Harbor. Book a tour on the Condor Express. And ask for Captain Fred
Benko. He still has a terrific voice; maybe he’ll sing a little folk song
for you.
If he can find his guitar.
Profiles
This breaching humpback is
a common sight in the Santa
Barbara Channel during most
months of the year
(photo by: Robert Perry)