A rare sighting of offshore-type killer whales was made Friday about 12 miles nortwest of Long Beach by passengers aboard the dive boat Magician as it was en route to Santa Catalina Island.
As many as eight orcas were seen feeding on a massive school of fish before slowly heading east, and there could be many more around because offshore killer whales typically travel in much larger groups.
In fact, 30 offshore killer whales were seen off Monterey on March 20 and at least one of them was the same animal spotted Friday, according to researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger. That orca has been nicknamed Scoopfin and it's pictured above in August of 2002, off Monterey.
(Schulman-Janiger is requesting that weekend boaters who encounter any orcas take photographs for identification purposes; she can be reached via email at [email protected].)
The type of killer whales most commonly seen off Southern California are transients, which prey almost exclusively on marine mammals, including gray whale calves. Offshore killer whales prey on fish and small sharks. They often travel in groups of between 25-100 but while traveling they typically break up into groups of 5-15.
Offshore orcas seem to spend much of their time off British Columbia. Schulman-Janiger, who is conducting a longterm photo-identification study of transient and offshore killer whales, said she has fewer than 60 records of offshore orcas off California over the last 19 years.
Those that have been spotted off the Long Beach area often traveled to south Orange County before turning around, so chances are good that there will be more sightings before the end of what's expected to be a beautiful weekend on the water.
Have your cameras ready as offshore orcas are curious mammals, known to approach boats.
-- Pete Thomas
Photo of Scoopfin the offshore killer whale is courtesy of Alisa Schulman-Janiger
Comments