SAN DIEGO — A pod of killer whales spotted off the coast of Torrey Pines by whale-watching groups Monday reappeared again on Tuesday.
Local whale watching companies tell CBS8 they got to see at least five killer whales, including a mom and her baby about three miles off the coast of Torrey Pines.
"We knew that there had been killer whales around, but specifically Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales. They actually live south of San Diego. So, because we know they had been spotted off Los Angeles earlier in the week, at some point they were gonna be down here, so we’ve been looking for three days and we finally connected yesterday," said Domenic Biagini, owner of Gone Whale Watching.
Biagnini tells CBS8 he scouted the whales early in the day on Monday. When he spotted them, he spread the word to other local companies, as well as potential customers. Within 90 minutes, his tours for the day were fully booked.
"Everyone got to really enjoy something pretty special out here," said Biagini.
"One thing about the job is that it's always exciting because you never know what you're going to see," said Ryan Jones.
Jones is a captain at San Diego Whale Watch. They also saw the whales.
"Seeing killer whales, I can tell you how rare it is. I've been doing whale watching eight years and I've only once seen killer whales prior to today on a whale watching trip in California," Jones said.
This sighting was especially rare for southern California. If you’re lucky, you may see Orcas in the summertime, but seeing them in December is very uncommon.
The whale-watching tour stumbled upon the pod just as the whales had finished hunting.
"This particular ecotype of killer whale are mammal eaters and specifically these eastern pacific killer whales are known to hunt dolphins and had hunted dolphins prior to us getting here," he said.
They also got to see the whales interacting with each other.
"The calf was jumping out of the water a lot so that was fun. The mom actually threw the calf in the air which was a fun behavior to see. There seemed to be at least one male," he said.
Although killer whales are rare in San Diego, more than 20,000 gray whales will be swimming along our coastline as they migrate between Alaska and Mexico. December through March is the best time to try seeing them.
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