Encounters
Here is a summary of my personal encounters with ETP Killer Whales in Southern California and Baja. Dates, basic description, and photos specific to that encounter are included.

Sighted about 10 miles SW of Newport Beach. Traveling quickly, about 8 to 10 mph. Spread out and uninterested in the boat. No predations observed. Total time spent was 20 minutes.

This was a super pod of ETP Killer Whales. Multiple sub groups spread across several miles. Located about 8 miles west of Camp Pendleton, CA, observed moving south around 4mph. Extremely boat friendly engaging in bow riding, wake surfing, and close curious passes. No predations observed. Total time spent was 1 hour.  

Located in the San Pedro Canyon in the morning, we followed this pod for about two dozen miles and until dark off Laguna Beach, CA. It included the well known male some call "Moctezuma". Whales were not boat friendly, but not evasive. No predations observed, although their presence did cause a pod of common dolphins to stampede. Total time spent was 5 hours.

Seen off south Laguna Beach near sunset. Whales were evasive; we didn't get close. Only two whales seen which is unusual. Alisa Schulman-Janiger matched them to ETP orca seen in So Cal in Nov 2014, as they moved from San Diego as far north as Santa Barbara Channel! No predations observed. Total time spent was 15 minutes

This pod of killer whales was first seen on the afternoon of the 12th moving up the coast from San Clemente. They had been sighted the previous day in San Diego. By evening, we were watching them hunt a common dolphin calf within 1/2 mile from shore off Crystal Cove. We had watched them for 5 hours. The following morning the 13th they were still off Newport Beach, seemingly having not moved much overnight; only 4 miles from our last recorded position on the 12th. The pod began moving south, making dolphin kills as they went. Notably they predated on an inshore bottlenose dolphin close to Dana Point. I last saw them on the 13th moving south about 8 miles off San Onofre around 3pm. On 9/15, we saw them again off San Clemente swimming up the coast around 930am. Eventually they came into the shallow water of Laguna Beach where they killed several dolphin. More dolphin were hunted throughout the day. By the afternoon on the 15th, they disappeared from detection for a few hours, but then were found again close to Newport Harbor entrance. They were last seen on the 15th at sunset heading down the coast off North Laguna Beach.

​

Note: although I wasn't personally present, this same pod again visited Newport Beach on 9/18 and hunted more dolphin, at least one offshore bottlenose according to my records.

I first encountered a pod of 3 to 4 of these orcas off Camp Pendleton, CA moving up at about 1pm. They were immediately boat friendly, enthusiastically wake surfing and bow riding.They killed several common dolphins as we followed them up toward San Clemente. There they made a turn and headed south again. I left this group around 6pm, but 20 minutes after I left, my other boat reported another 4 to 6 killer whales had joined the original group. They were last seen at sunset off Camp Pendleton. Total time spent was 6 hours.

We caught up with this pod above Ensenada, offshore of La Salina by about 12 miles. They were very boat friendly engaging in bow riding, wake surfing and close passes. They were swimming southwest along the edge of the Finger Bank. No predation was observed. Total time spent was 1 hour.

I first got eyes on this pod via binoculars from 150 foot elevation on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA. Delaney Trowbridge was on my boat and I guided her to the pod via radio from shore. Her initial photographs confirmed them as animals we had seen before on 8/31/2021, 9/12-15/18, and 7/29/19. I  was later picked up via boat and we watched these Killer Whales predate on 2 offshore bottlenose dolphin, (which they attacked and consumed very quickly,) and also a single adult common dolphin as well as a calf common dolphin. They traveled about 20 miles NW from the initial morning sighting. Ending the day moving NW at the mouth of Redondo Canyon. Total time spent with them was 6 hours.

Hopefully soon