Killer Whales Attack Gray Whale And Calf Off Coast Of Palos Verdes

PALOS VERDES, CA — People aboard a Harbor Breeze whale-watching tour out of Long Beach witnessed a pod of orcas attack a gray whale and its calf on Tuesday, the latest in a series of dramatic orca sightings off the Southern California coast.

The group watched a mother gray whale fighting off Easter Tropical Pacific orca near the Palos Verdes Peninsula at about 3 p.m., Harbor Breeze Assistant Port Captain Tyler Askari told KTLA. Videos from the cruise show blood in the water as the boat approached the battle.

This pod of orcas has been seen attacking whales, dolphins and sea lions all along the coast of Southern California since last month. The Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales are typically found further south between the Mexican border and the equator.

According to reports, the pod's first stateside kill may have been an endangered fin whale that washed up on San Diego's Pacific Beach on Dec 10. The whale's body was covered in orcas' signature rake marks.

Since then, there have been many documented instances of tours seeing the orcas hunting. On Dec. 11, tour agency Pacific Offshore Expeditions reported seeing an orca ram a bottlenose dolphin, catapulting it 20 feet into the air.

The animals also killed and ate two common dolphins, the tour agency said. Following one of the killings, one orca swam alongside a whale-watching boat and shot "a blood-red mixture of air, mucus and dolphin bits" through its blowhole, the Los Angeles Times reported.

On Dec. 18, Gone Whale Watching reported an orca ramming a dolphin as it jumped above the water line near San Diego. Four days later, Long Beach-based Harbor Breeze Cruises witnessed a dolphin being killed and a juvenile orca hunting a second dolphin.

In a particularly harrowing hunt Dec. 26, Pacific Offshore Expeditions reported a sea lion jumped aboard the tour group’s vessel in the Channel Islands.

“What other words can we say, besides that this amount of activity is just unprecedented,” Newport Coastal Adventure posted Dec. 24 on social media. “They seem to have found a new hunting ground and it’s no telling how long they might stay at this point.”

Check out the video of the orca attacking the gray whale and calf here.

Patch staffer Anna Schier contributed to this report.