Warm-water orcas spend past week hunting off Southern California

Three different pods of Eastern Tropical Pacific orcas were spotted off Southern California’s coastline over the weekend, from Palos Verdes down to San Diego, a species typically found further south in warmer water climates.

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Newport Coastal Adventures crews came upon a pod of the killer whales rarely documented off California about a mile from Laguna Beach early Saturday morning, Oct. 24, including a large male thought to be more than 60 years old called Cuitláhuac. He is commonly seen in the warmer waters of the Gulf of California.

“This is the first time I’ve seen this pod and they sure were amazing to see, very friendly toward boats as long as they were given respect,” said Mark Girardeau, a photographer for Newport Coastal Adventure, noting there were 15 confirmed orcas, but possibly 20, in the pod on Saturday.

This ETP pod was spotted hunting dolphins, and though they were not documented feasting, it was clear they were after the smaller marine mammals, he said.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, co-founder of the California Killer Whale Project who has been documenting orca sightings since the late 1970s, said the same pod was spotted killing a young fin whale off San Diego on Friday, calling the males in this pod “large whale predation specialists.”

“I’m very much looking forward to checking out more ID images,” she said in a social media post. “This is an incredible opportunity for our California Killer Whale Project researchers to study and ID the more rarely encountered ETPs along our coastline.”

On Sunday, a different pod of ETP orcas were seen in the Palos Verdes area, spotted off Point Vicente around 11:30 a.m., heading south, said Alex Cobb, spokesperson for Harbor Breeze Cruises.

They were heading south from Point Vicente and passed San Pedro and Long Beach.

“On our earlier trips, they were mainly seen just traveling,” Cobb said.

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It was on the 4:30 p.m. charter that the killer whales got hungry and started hunting a pod of common dolphins, he said.

“The dolphins were oblivious to the orcas’ presence until they were practically right next to the pod,” Cobb recounted. “Once they were aware of them, they took off in a stampede to try and escape them. The orcas successfully wounded a few dolphins, one which we assume they consumed relatively quickly.”

After about 30 minutes, the orcas trailed back to where they initially hunted the pod and preyed on a second dolphin, possibly injured earlier and saved for later, he said.

“This dolphin was chased right up next to our boat and even went under us to try and escape the orca,” Cobb said. “However, it was no match and the orcas easily outmaneuvered it.”

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He noted that orcas will often take their time when hunting their prey to teach their calves how to hunt.

Schulman-Janiger said that pod is more commonly spotted off the Southern California coast, documented many times since 2018. There were six of the 13 that she’s familiar with, including two mothers, Luna and Ana, who have recently given birth to two males this year.

A pod of dolphin-hunting orcas showed up off of Palos Verdes on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Harbor Breeze Cruises)They were joined by another juvenile male, Deigo, and Terso, a male teenager.

This pod specializes in hunting dolphins, but also killed a large fin whale off of Point Loma in San Diego County on Oct. 17, she said.

“It’s overwelming, it’s very exciting,”  Schulman-Janiger said of all the sightings in recent days she needs to catalog, including another pod of ETPs documented further south off San Diego in the past week.

Newport Coastal Adventure boats also got to see the ETP pod Sunday as it traveled from Palos Verdes, past Long Beach and south toward Huntington Beach.

“It’s super exciting. Obviously, seeing them one day is super exciting,” Girardeau said. “Usually, they are here and they are gone. I think because of the El Niño, they are sticking around.”

The orcas’ unexpected visits are what make the species so exciting when they do show up.

“I think they will keep showing up — the question is when,” said Girardeau. “I really feel like because the water is so abnormally warm right now, spots of water are still 72 (degrees) offshore; I think they are going to show up again.”

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