Video: 40 killer whales cruise OC coast
Dozens of rare, “offshore” killer whales moved across miles of Orange County coastline Thursday, delighting whale watchers and sending researchers scrambling to identify this normally elusive group of orcas.
The offshore whales — 40 or more reported off Dana Point Thursday — are a distinct population from the ‘transient’ whales that paid a call to Orange County earlier month.
Smaller than the transients, and fond of attacking sharks as prey, they acquired the “offshore” nickname when they appeared suddenly off the coast in 1979, said marine biologist Alisa Schulman-Janiger of the California Killer Whale Project.
In reality, they don’t necessarily remain any farther “offshore” than the transients, she said.
And when they do make an appearance, it tends to be in large numbers.
“There could have been 30, there could have been 40, there could have been 60 or more,” said Schulman-Janiger, who was on a boat Thursday trying to identify the whales.
The whales appeared to be spread over miles of coastline, broken into smaller groups. Several whale-watch tour operators reported seeing them and provided the photos and video seen here. They include video from an underwater viewing pod on a boat operated by Capt. Dave’s Dolphin & Whale Safari.
The offshore orcas are seen far more rarely than their transient cousins, whom Schulman-Janiger can identify individually by notches in their fins.
“The offshore killer whales are physically smaller, but travel in very large groups,” she said.
“They are very chatty, talking to each other all the time, and that is because they are not ambush feeders. They hunt sharks, possibly fish, too.”
Transient orcas hunt marine mammals, such as gray whales and sea lions, which become alarmed at the sound of killer whale calls. So they tend to be far quieter.
Schulman-Janiger says she needs more photos to improve her ability to identify the offshore whales and learn more about them. She asks anyone with photos of the orcas that appeared off Orange County Thursday to email them to her at janiger@cox.net.
Click here to view the embedded video.Video: 40 killer whales cruise OC coast is a post from: OC Science
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