‘Beautiful and free’: Rarely seen orcas breach off California coast, video shows
A video shows rarely seen offshore orcas breaching off Laguna Beach, California, on December 2, 2021.
Dana Wharf Whale Watching filmed the orcas rising to the ocean’s surface near its whale-watching cruise boat.
Donna Kalez, chief operating officer of Dana Wharf Whale Watching, wrote in a video caption that the killer whales had initially been mistaken as bottlenose dolphins, because it was so rare to see the orcas locally.
“The passengers on board were excited to see them in the wild so beautiful and free!” the caption read.
Local marine expert Alisa Schulman-Janiger said the mammals were “displaying foraging behavior.” She said offshore killer whales were last seen in the area back in 2016.
Orcas can live 50 to 80 years and grow up to 32 feet and weigh as much as six tons. That’s roughly the size of a school bus.
“Smart and social, orcas make a wide variety of communicative sounds, and each pod has distinctive noises that its members will recognize even at a distance,” according to National Geographic. “They use echolocation to communicate and hunt, making sounds that travel underwater until they encounter objects, then bounce back, revealing their location, size, and shape.”
Storyful contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 6, 2021 at 11:19 AM.
