SAN DIEGO — A large pod or orcas has been spotted off the San Diego coast.
On Wednesday, a crew from Gone Whale Watching saw an estimated 13 orcas between three and four miles offshore near the Coronado Islands.
They found them after friends in the industry tipped them off.
"Just couple crew members, you know, myself, captain Erica and captain Kyle and my dog took the day to go explore. And actually, on our way home, I started getting phone calls that there was rumblings of killer whales by the U.S. Mexico border. So, we repacked all of our stuff, and we headed right back to go try to find them," said Gone Whale Watching founder, Domenic Biagini.
"You get that phone call, you know, your heart starts racing, and you're like, where are they going to pop up? And then, you know, it's just a mad dash to you're looking for a needle in a haystack, like, where are they going to be," said Erica Sackrison with Gone Whale Watching.
Sackrison shot a video showing the pod as they slowly swam near their boat. She says if it weren't for some dolphins, they may have never seen them.
"Just out of the corner of my eye, I see a bunch of dolphins stampeding. And they only stampede for two reasons. They're either really, really excited or they're really, really afraid. And, you know, just behind them, I'm like, I might have seen a spout, but sometimes dolphins can put up big spouts themselves. And then we had Kyle look at the binoculars, and the second, you know, Kyle's like, no, we have them," said Sackrison.
It's believed these are the same orcas CBS 8 reported on last winter, which traveled from Baja to feed on dolphins, and stuck around in the San Diego region for a few weeks.
Biagini says orca sightings here are rare and typically only occur a few times a year.
But, this one in particular is even more unique, because of some new additions.
"On our initial analysis, we did see all 10 that we saw the last time here in San Diego, which means some of the younger calves are still doing well. But we also had at least two, possibly three, new additions of a big male, which we did not have last time, and we're jokingly calling it his girlfriend, because this male, I guess, has been seen in parts of Baja, always traveling with the same female, and we think a brand new baby as well. So at least three more," said Biagini.
In just 24 hours, video of the pod on Gone Whale Watching's Instagram page has well over a million views.
On Thursday, Biagini and his team organized tours to try and find the orcas again - no luck.
But, it's possible they're still around, so the plan is to keep trying.
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