With the Cook Strait banner season over, the Strait of Gibraltar getting off to a fast start in its channel crossing season and a few successful relays swims already achieved in the English Channel in June and hundreds more swimmers making plans, the Catalina Channel season will kick-off with a young relay team from the Mission Viejo Nadadores.

Like cargo ships and ferries crowding the English Channel, swimmers in the Catalina Channel may have to navigate their way around the largest animals on the planet, the migrating blue whales.

The blue whales, California gray whales and fin whales have arrived in the channel. With hundreds of whales spotted each year in the Catalina Channel, the solitary swimmers and their escort crews are often treated to views rarely seen up close by other humans.

But do not draft too close.

Copyright © 2010 by Steven Munatones