Best chances for seals or sea lions?

[Trailboss123]

Ahh I see, yeah we only have time for a daytrip, any idea if any boats do a dive/land combo at Anacapa, where you could go check out the island between dives or after, etc..?

No, that is not an option. None of the dive boats have access or permits to land or put people on the island. The only vendor that can do that is Island Packers and Landing Cove is the location that they use (only location on the island) for off loading and on loading for land based touring. Island Packers does not do diving.

 

[Mystaadam]

There are no daily charters out to Santa Barbara Island. Only way out there is if you are on a multi day live aboard that is going there or on a private boat/charter.

Your best best from a commercial boat that goes regularly out to the islands is Landing Cove on Anacapa. They are always there and I have dozens of dives there.

No disagreement on Anacapa, but there are several companies that do 1 day trips to Santa Barbara Island. I've done it before on both the Peace and the Cee-Ray. The caveat is that those trips only occur a handful of times, and for this case, may not be doable based on a restricted time frame.

 

[qwimjim]

No, that is not an option. None of the dive boats have access or permits to land or put people on the island. The only vendor that can do that is Island Packers and Landing Cove is the location that they use (only location on the island) for off loading and on loading for land based touring. Island Packers does not do diving.

Thanks! So looks like the Spectre would be doing a day trip out there on the weekend I'm in LA at the end of October. I tried asking them what the odds of seeing sea lions is that time of year at Anacapa but they didn't answer.. which is unfortunate since they would probably be the ones best able to answer given how often they go there.

Anyone been there enough times to be able to give me a better idea? Ie i don't want to lose a day in LA if the odds are like 10% and sightings are not all that common.. but if it's more like 90% and you'd have to be unlucky not to see any on any given day, then I'd roll the dice. Is it like the Manta night dive in Kona where there's no guarantees mantas will show up, but most of the time they do?

 

[Trailboss123]

Thanks! So looks like the Spectre would be doing a day trip out there on the weekend I'm in LA at the end of October. I tried asking them what the odds of seeing sea lions is that time of year at Anacapa but they didn't answer.. which is unfortunate since they would probably be the ones best able to answer given how often they go there.

Anyone been there enough times to be able to give me a better idea? Ie i don't want to lose a day in LA if the odds are like 10% and sightings are not all that common.. but if it's more like 90% and you'd have to be unlucky not to see any on any given day, then I'd roll the dice. Is it like the Manta night dive in Kona where there's no guarantees mantas will show up, but most of the time they do?

I think they could guarantee nearly 100% if they could guarantee that they can get you to Landing Cover dive site. But, there is no way that they or any other operator can guarantee ahead of time that the wind, swells, current, etc will cooperate in advance. There are lots and lots of dive sites on Anacapa- both front side and back side and the Captain will have to make a "day of" decision on where to dive on the island, given the conditions. That is standard operating procedure in the Channel Islands for all dive ops.

 

[qwimjim]

I think they could guarantee nearly 100% if they could guarantee that they can get you to Landing Cover dive site. But, there is no way that they or any other operator can guarantee ahead of time that the wind, swells, current, etc will cooperate in advance. There are lots and lots of dive sites on Anacapa- both front side and back side and the Captain will have to make a "day of" decision on where to dive on the island, given the conditions. That is standard operating procedure in the Channel Islands for all dive ops.

Ah ok, they got back to me, kind of implied late October was not a particularly good time of year to go if our priority was seeing sea lions and that right now is a good time and divers are seeing them everyday.

 

[Mystaadam]

Ah ok, they got back to me, kind of implied late October was not a particularly good time of year to go if our priority was seeing sea lions and that right now is a good time and divers are seeing them everyday.

For the record, I've seen Sea Lions and Seals @ Anacapa between the months of August-January, so not sure why they tried to imply October was no good. As someone mentioned above, it's a roll of the dice depending on conditions.

 

[qwimjim]

For the record, I've seen Sea Lions and Seals @ Anacapa between the months of August-January, so not sure why they tried to imply October was no good. As someone mentioned above, it's a roll of the dice depending on conditions.

No idea. So basically if you can't get to Landing Cove, there's not much chance of seeing them? So then I guess it becomes a, how often are they able to get to landing cove, and is it a priority?

 

[Mystaadam]

No idea. So basically if you can't get to Landing Cove, there's not much chance of seeing them? So then I guess it becomes a, how often are they able to get to landing cove, and is it a priority?

It's unfortunately all weather dependent. There's really no odds on it so your guess would be as good as ours. But even if you don't see any sea lions, there are some wonderful dive sites at Anacapa. And a day on the Spectre is never a bad thing in my book

 

[Mystaadam]

Btw, my avatar is a shot of Sea Lions out at Anacapa from 2014 and that photo was taken in either October or November, so there's clearly the opportunity at your preferred time of year.