Rare sighting of killer whales close to coast

June 12th, 2008, 8:58 am · 2 Comments · posted by Laylan Connelly, staff writer

There was a lot of action in the water last night down in Dana Point, with two whale watching charter boats seeing a pod of five killer whales playing alongside the boats - even rubbing up against them.

The Dana Wharf Sportsfishing and Whale Watching crew saw the pod at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday during its Ocean Adventure cruise, just 2.2 miles out of the harbor. “The Orcas were very friendly and showed various behaviors,” said manager Donna Kalez.

”They were jumping, breaching, slapping the water, rolling around, and the only way I can explain it is that they were playing!”

They were headed up the coast toward Newport by sunset.

“It was like sea world,” she said.

The crew on Capt. Dave’s Whale Watching and Dolphin Safari got a call about the whales from Mike Bursk, skipper at the Ocean Institute, who had originally heard about the whales from the Dana Pride crew.
“We made a mad dash down there … and raced to the spot, about four miles from the harbor,” said Gisele Anderson, wife of Cpt. Dave.

There were five Orca, but they weren’t sure whether they were transients or residents, or if they came from further out offshore.
“We haven’t seen residents down here in the last 10 years or so, but we have seen offshore variety, from a Mexico pod (The La Paz pod) several times.
The last time Orcas were seen here in Dana Point was on Valentine’s Day, 2005. They were from the La Paz pod, Anderson said. In Newport, they saw a huge pod a few months ago. Read that story here.

“They were amazing. Not in any hurry, just moving slowly up the coast…breaching and breaching. One, the largest, kept rolling on his back, and swimming on the surface, upside down,” she said.

“At one point when they came over (as they did several times), one of them actually touched our fender!”

The day before, Anderson had been at Sea World and saw the Orcas in captivity, the sight of them bringing tears to her eyes.
“All I could think of was how these orcas would never know what it was like to swim in the wild, over vast areas, with their families for decades.

Click on the jump to see more photos and read more about Orcas.

They would not know what it was like not to have to swim in a chlorine pool, where they cannot escape the sunlight.”

Here’s more information on Orcas from Wikipedia:

The Orca or Killer Whale is the largest species of the oceanic dolphin family. It is found in all the world’s oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to warm, tropical seas.

Orcas are versatile and opportunistic predators. Some populations feed mostly on fish, and other populations hunt marine mammals, including sea lions, seals, and even large whales.

There are up to five distinct Orca types, some of which may be separate races, subspecies or even species. Orcas are highly social; some populations are composed of matrilineal family groups which are the most stable of any animal species.