Boaters off San Diego on Saturday witnessed a rarely seen spectacle involving killer whales, or orcas, that are more commonly encountered much farther south in Mexico.
“Who needs SeaWorld when the greatest Orca show in the world is in the WILD!” Domenic Biagini, owner of Gone Whale Watching San Diego, exclaimed via Instagram.
The accompanying footage, captured by the company’s Erica Sackrison, shows one orca ambushing a dolphin from below, sending the stunned mammal flying while launching at least 20 feet above the surface.
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The Eastern Tropical Pacific orcas only show up a few times a year off San Diego and it’s almost always to hunt common dolphins, which are abundant off Southern California.
Biagini explained that the day’s excitement began with the sighting of a surface-feeding humpback whale and hundreds of dolphins.
Then, in the distance, dolphins began to stampede in a panic. A crewman noticed a splash from a larger mammal, indicating that a killer whale hunting party was present.
“Our initial thought was that a Humpback had done something surface active; when suddenly the unmistakeable shape of a Killer Whale exploded into the air!” Biagini wrote.
The orca in the footage is a previous visitor nicknamed Top Notch, because of distinctive markings. Biagini joked that Top Notch was “channeling his inner ‘Top Gun’ by rocketing 20-plus feet into the air in pursuit of a common dolphin breakfast.”
The orcas were not encountered Sunday.
