You may not need to charter a whale-watching boat to get a sighting of a pod of orcas that has been traveling up and down the coast of Southern California for the past few months.
Some lucky San Diego beachgoers got an up-close sighting of the black-and-white whales following their animal instinct off the coast of La Jolla last Sunday morning. One of those beachgoers was surf instructor Jake Halstead, who captured a piece of astounding video that showed orcas chasing and jumping to attack dolphins just feet from the Scripps Pier -- and dozens of surfers and swimmers.
"I am an ex-professional surfer and now a surfer, so I've spent thousands of hours at the beach in my life and never witnessed something like this," Halstead said. "I just happened to be at the right place at the right time."
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Halstead said since his video has made the rounds on social media, he's been in contact with some of the swimmers in the water. The majority were unaware how close they were to one of the ocean's biggest predators.
Over the last two months, there have been dozens of recorded sightings by whale watching tours as they play with boats and hunt dolphins, as well as a few gray whale calves.
NOAA Fisheries spokesman Michael Milstein said orcas have been appearing off the coast of SoCal during the winter months for the last few years. They are Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales that travel between Mexico and Southern California.
They're likely hanging around because of a bountiful food source.
The orcas were "Getting really close to about 25 people in the water and they didn't seem to want any interest in the people. They went straight to the dolphin that got lost from the pack of dolphins and they went after it," Halstead said.
The former surf pro said he doesn't feel unsafe going in the water knowing that orcas are around, and others should either.
"They knew exactly what they wanted, they wanted that dolphin."
