Tropical orcas make rare showing off Orange County’s coast

The black-and-white, sleek killer whales came cruising up the coast, a sight that brought excitement for the marine mammals not typically seen in local waters.

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The Eastern Tropical Pacific orcas were spotted early Monday about five miles off Dana Point, heading north by the afternoon to near Newport Beach and then passing Huntington Beach.

It’s unknown whether they’ll be back off Orange County, but that unpredictability is what makes the orcas so mysterious. A pod will be reported off the coast occasionally, but with no regularity. In January 2025, a pod was spotted that hadn’t been documented in the area before.

This pod of orcas, typically found off Mexico and Costa Rica and as far south as Peru, were last seen by local whale watching boats in January 2024. They’ve been hanging out off San Diego recently, so whale watching charters were on the lookout.

“It’s so exciting. Everyone drops everything they are doing to rush down, they know it’s a chance-of-a-lifetime sighting,” said Donna Kalez, manager of Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching, who also jumped on an afternoon boat to get a glimpse of the pod of 13 orcas, including two calves.

Dana Wharf Capt. Steve Burkhalter said the pod was moving steadily up the coast. The orcas would come up, take a series of breaths, then stay down for 4 to 5 minutes before surfacing again, he said.

“It’s always a cool treat,” said Burkhalter, who hasn’t seen orcas in local waters for several years.

Eastern Tropical Pacific orcas are known to be “elusive and still poorly understood.”  Unlike some of the killer whale populations found in colder waters, these whales appear to have a much more generalist diet, taking advantage of a wide variety of prey including dolphins, sea turtles, sharks and even other whales, according to Dana Wharf naturalist Laura Lopez.

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They also have a distinctive appearance, with very faint saddle patches compared to many of the more temperate North Pacific killer whales.

This same family pod has been documented on 19 separate occasions from December 2023 through February 2024, repeatedly observed hunting common and bottlenose dolphins, socializing, traveling and interacting with their young, according to Jessica Rodriguez, education manager for Davey’s Locker & Newport Landing Whale Watching in Newport Beach, which also had charters out on the water watching to orcas.

“Seeing them return to the Newport Beach area more than two years later, with familiar individuals and a new generation of young killer whales, is incredibly exciting,” Rodriguez said.

Because the family pod stuck around for so long during the previous encounter nearly three years ago, tour operators are hopeful they will stick around the region.

“We don’t know how long the killer whales will remain off Orange County, but we’ll be watching closely to see where they go next,” Rodriguez said.

For the charter passengers, it is a trip to remember, Burkhalter said.

“They are stoked. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these people,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know or expect they can see them here, so it’s a highlight for everyone when it happens.”

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