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Orcas which are “hardly ever seen” had been caught on digital camera searching sea lions off the California coast this week, the Monterey Bay Whale Watch stated on Wednesday.
The “completely improbable whale watching day” included seeing eight orcas searching a number of sea lions on Tuesday, the whale watch stated in a put up on Fb. The California Killer Whale Undertaking, which tags and identifies killer whales within the space, recognized a number of the whales, and recognized them as particular person whales that don’t make frequent appearances. One of many whales was a calf touring with its mom, the Monterey Bay Whale Watch stated.
The group stated that they witnessed the whales leaping out of the water, breaching the floor and slapping their tails as they hunted the ocean lions earlier than touring “very quick to the northwest.”
A video that the Monterey Bay Whale Watch stated was taken by a drone exhibits the orcas preying on the ocean lion. The video could also be disturbing, the whale watch stated, however exhibits “a vital a part of nature and the ecosystem.” It is also uncommon to doc such occasions, the whale watch stated.
Past the orcas and sea lions, the whale watch additionally recorded seeing 50 Risso’s dolphins, a kind of blunt-headed dolphin frequent alongside the California coast. Orcas do hunt these dolphins, however the whale watch didn’t say they’d been preyed on by the killer whales seen on Tuesday.
Nancy Black, the proprietor of the Monterey Bay Whale Watch, director of the California Killer Whale Undertaking, and a marine biologist, beforehand advised CBS Sacramento that orcas seen in California are extra generally discovered within the deep ocean canyon beneath Monterey Bay. As a result of the canyon is near the seaside, it is attainable to see the orcas from the shore in some instances, Black stated on the time.
Monterey Bay is about 75 miles south of San Francisco.
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