Orcas Make Rare Visit To Long Beach Channel

Thursday, December 27, 2007
LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA - A rare treat Thursday for some people on a whale-watching trip off of Long Beach: They spotted a pod of orcas, the beautiful black and white killer whales. They're an unusual sight in Southland waters.

A group was going out on a whale-watching tour expecting to see a lot of dolphins and whales expected to be in the area this time of the year, and they got the rare treat of seeing killer whales coming right up to their boat.

Gasps came from the crowd on the boat as killer whales came up for air. A pod of orcas has given whale watchers in the Long Beach Channel quite a show for the past few days -- an unusual sight, since killer whales rarely make an appearance in this area.

"Orcas have been known to be in the area," said Alie LeBeau, Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. "They are sometimes seen on the outside of the island, but to come in between the channel and to spend so much time around the boat is really a great treat for us."

They were swimming around the boat," said whale watcher Susan Bolinger. "They would come up and around the boat. It was neat."

"When we went out there, we were talking about seeing gray whales and I think they said finback whales," said whale watcher Clay White. "When we saw the killer whales, it was a real surprise."

Kris Robinson was the first passenger on the tour boat to spot the killer whales.

"I saw the spouts and I saw a really big dorsal fin," said Robinson. "I said to myself, those are orcas. And indeed they were."

"I've been a captain in this area for 20 years," said Captain Dan Salas, Harbor Breeze Cruise Company. "We have never seen the killer whales with passengers on board the ship, and today was our first day, and it happened that we had a full load, and all of our passengers got to enjoy these magnificent animals."

Teachers at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific say that they don't know why the orcas are here. They think it's probably a food thing, that the orcas have found something they really like here, and they're comfortable here for now, so the whale watchers are going to take advantage of watching the killer whales while they can.

Source: KABC-TV