A whale watching boat recently spotted a large group of orcas, also called killer whales, off the northern Channel Islands.
Pacific Offshore Expeditions has run trips out of the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard for three seasons, spotting dozens of orcas. On any given day, they might see three to seven killer whales in a group.
But occasionally, they come across larger groups of families traveling together. Capt. Delaney Trowbridge said trip-goers spotted around 10 orcas on May 11 and again on May 12. A couple weeks earlier, the count was up to 30, with one larger group of 20 killer whales.
“We got to see a lot of breaching, tail slapping and the whales doing something called a cuddle puddle,” Trowbridge said.
Sightings can differ day by day, and trip by trip, which generally run from Labor Day through Memorial Day. They may see the same family three days in a row, sometimes in the same spot. Other times, they spot different families each time out.
The trips typically take passengers off Santa Rosa and San Miguel, the most northern Channel Islands and both part of the Channel Islands National Park.
Alisa Schulman-Janiger, lead research biologist for the California Killer Whale Project, said she and others have always known orcas frequent waters in and around the Channel Islands. Day trips with Island Packers and other whale watching boats have reported orca sightings in the Santa Barbara Channel off Ventura for years.
“But we didn’t know how many different killer whales and how often they might be there,” she said. “There was no way to know that unless you have someone there spending hours looking for them.”
Why look for killer whales off Ventura, Oxnard?
Whether the killer whale patterns have shifted is difficult to say. A drop in the number of gray whale calves migrating along the California coast in recent years may mean the orcas are spending more time around the northern islands.
“I think it’s a fabulous habitat for them, very rich in pinnipeds and seals and sea lions, very rich in abundance of dolphins,” Schulman-Janiger said. “For mammal-eating killer whales, it’s an ideal place to be, but it can be very challenging for a boat going out there.”
Dedicated trips to survey the area help researchers who have been studying the species for decades, she said. Pacific Offshore Expeditions has come across individuals seen regularly and others that were rarely spotted elsewhere.
The company started making day trips out of the Channel Islands Harbor in December 2023, said Capt. Ryan Lawler, the company’s owner. In the beginning, they expected the quests to spot orcas off the local coast could be sort of short-lived.
Reports of sightings in the eastern Santa Barbara Channel by Anacapa Island and off Oxnard and Ventura seemed to pick up in December and January. They planned to run boats for a month or two, but the sightings continued. They extended trips weekend after weekend, and the sightings kept going.
“We realized it’s not this tiny window of time that we thought it was,” Trowbridge said.
Are killer whales difficult to spot?
Captains with Pacific Offshore Expeditions were quick to point out that finding the orcas is not a slam dunk. Conditions are key, and some orca groups they come across are less interested in being seen.
At times, the boats have been lucky enough to find orcas 10 minutes to an hour outside of the harbor. But most days, expedition-goers can expect four hours of travel to come across a group.
“Every encounter that we have is a gift, because it is special to see them and to spend time with them in their home,” Trowbridge said. “We need a lot of factors to come together for that to work.”
Ideal weather can be a big part of that, she said.
What makes killer whale sightings a top request?
Lawler said the work done with researchers is one of the coolest things about the expeditions, from getting information about life histories to an understanding of the family structure, he said.
“It makes the encounters, I think, that much more rewarding,” he said. “You get this backstory on the families of the killer whales, and we wouldn’t have that without the California Killer Whale Project.”
Some think the mostly black on top orcas with white patches near the eyes and a white underside are gorgeous. Others find the top ocean predator a little scary, Trowbridge said. After nine years in whale watching, she continues to be surprised by them, describing the orcas as social and intelligent.
“I find myself amazed sometimes at how brutal they can be while hunting, and then five minutes later, you see these incredibly tender moments between mothers and calves, brothers and sisters,” the boat captain said.
“They are just an animal that has a lot of depth, and I think they mean a lot to people for that reason,” she said.
Cheri Carlson covers the environment for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at cheri.carlson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0260.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Large group of killer whales spotted off Ventura, Channel Islands
Reporting by Cheri Carlson, Ventura County Star / Ventura County Star
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