Orcas!

Once in a life time experiences almost always come when you don’t expect them. I didn’t expect Sunday to be such a day. What was going to be another great diving with friends turned out to be a day I will never forget.

We were on the Sunfish Dive boat out of Ventura, Ca. While we were crossing the channel to head over to Anacapa Island, someone said they saw whales up ahead. I was in the galley so I quickly grabbed my camera and headed to the bow with everyone else. The whales were off in a distance, but right away something was different than the usual whales you might spot crossing the channel. Someone said they look like Fin Whales. But I noticed they had tall dorsal fins and much shorter bodies. I was thinking to myself, those look like Orcas. As we got closer, everyone was saying "Holy Shit those are Orcas!!!"

We had just come up to a pod of 6 to 8 Orcas. I have always heard that Orcas migrate past California, but it was always something of an urban legend to me. I have never actually known anyone that has seen one. It was always a friend of a friend said he knows someone who had seen some. And suddenly here we were, right next to a pod of them.

At first it appeared that they were just going to swim by us. Captain Andy killed the engines and we just sat there. But the Orcas were swimming all around us, not leaving. And then we realized why. We had come up to them just as they were feeding on a sea lion. We noticed it floating on the surface but still moving. And we watched as they came in formation and hit the sea lion. There were a couple of small Orcas in the pod, and it looked to us as if they were teaching the small ones how to hunt. It was simply amazing. It was like watching the Discovery channel, witnessing in person, nature in its purest form. We watched them for about 15 minutes. They were breaching, circling and tail slapping. These animals were so graceful, beautiful and powerful. I was speechless and breathless.

And then a big one came up and did a full breach hitting the sea lion, flipping it in high the air. Yes, I know, the poor cure sea lion. But it was thrilling to say the least, to watch this in person.

After that the sea lion disappeared, as did all of the Orcas at once. Then after about 30 seconds of not seeing anything. A large one came up, did a full breach and side flop. As if it was the grand finale and saying to us “That’s it folks, the shows over!” And we didn’t see them again after that.