Tuesday morning, we got a hot tip that a pod of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Killer whales were seen heading north just a few miles south of the Mexican border.
So with the most enthusiastic all-female crew, we loaded up the Privateer on an exciting hunt for our favourite black and white matriarchal apex predators.
Communicating with all our neighbours and scanning in all directions, we eventually sighted the most impressive sight of the tall black dorsal fins surfacing out of the rolling swell. We were elated!!
There were 8-10 killer whales in total split between 2 subsets of the pod.
The group of 5 orcas who were most interested in us had 2 little babies with them and showed a full spectrum of incredible behaviour. We had a spy-hopping orca checking us out, and a baby who loved to show us its tail slapping skills and tail stands.
We got to see some kelping while they draped kelp on their dorsal fins!
It was the best.
This is such a rare sighting for us as the ETP killer whales range is from Southern California to Peru.
That wasn’t the only rare sighting we had; we also got to see a Guadalupe fur seal!
Best day on the water.
We have a bunch of availability tomorrow if you want to come continue the search!
-Naturalist Ruth
