Orcas Off of San Diego Coast?

Most of us who spend a lot of time on or around the water have seen the typical seals and dolphins and eventually become accustomed to these beautiful creatures greeting us. But I don’t think anyone will get used to seeing pods of orcas off the stern of our boats. Our very own Sail San Diego’s Cal saw a pod of them yesterday while out fishing. Take a look below at the video that went viral from just last week!

This video was taken by a couple on a fishing boat about 5 miles offshore and this wasn’t the only killer whale encounter off the coast of southern California. Boats anywhere from Long Beach down to our very own San Diego coast have all spotted pods in the last two weeks alone! This leads me to question why they are coming so close to the coast: could it be the effects of warmer waters being brought to us by the El Nino year? Or is this a more permanent change in our ecosystem due to global warming? A topic for another day though…

The main food sources for these dolphin family members are salmon and seals and in some places, these numbers have been dramatically declining. Perhaps they are coming closer to shore in search of a different food source, as we have seen in other animals. Don’t be worried though, humans are not a desired choice for orcas and there have been less than five documented threatening encounters since 1910, only one of which included an actual attack.

Leading into a subject that we here at Sail San Diego feel very passionate about, would like to gently remind the community to not only take care of our environment but to become activists and participate in public events such as beach clean-ups. We are making it a new mission to help keep you informed about public events that help our environment and the many creatures that we influence.

But whatever the reason is for the recent greetings from the orcas, we thank them and are using it as an gentle reminder that everything we utilize and consumer directly impacts our environment and those within it.