Onlookers go wild as endangered blue whales swim off California coast, video shows
The largest creatures on earth were spotted swimming off California’s coast recently, and onlookers couldn’t contain their excitement, videos show.
Dana Wharf Whale Watching posted multiple photos and videos of a dozen or so blue whales on social media on June 22.
“First Day of Summer ~ We had a Blue Whale Palooza!” Laura Lopez, a naturalist with the group, said on Facebook.
The first one the group saw was Notcho, a female named for her “small, notched dorsal fin” who had not been spotted in California since 2020, the Orange County Register reported.
Whale researchers with the Cascadia Research Collective have been tracking Notcho since 1985, the tour group said.
Three more blue whales followed behind her, and because the whales didn’t seem to be diving deep to feed, the tour group “could almost constantly see the blue glow from the body, tail, and pectoral fins of this massive animal,” Lopez said
In one video, the crowd of onlookers cheers as a whale takes a breath and then flashes its fluke above the waves.
“The crowd goes WILD for the big fluke!” the group said in the Instagram video. “Beautiful Blue Whales are here in Dana Point!”
