Boaters have ‘experience of a lifetime’ when predators hunt dolphin. See ‘unreal’ moment
_fitted.png "A boat of tourists in California spotted orcas hunting down dolphins, according to a Facebook post.")
After watching a pod of dolphins feeding off the coast of California, tourists aboard Dana Wharf Whale Watch’s Ocean Adventures boat were heading back to shore.
That’s when the tour agency got a report: there were orcas heading south from Newport.
Passengers were invited to stay onboard and join the next tour group, and after “quickly” loading everyone onto Ocean Adventures, the group “headed up the coast for what was an Orca-credible afternoon,” the tour group wrote in a Jan. 25 Facebook post.
When they finally tracked down the whales, boaters watched as at least six Eastern Tropical Pacific orcas traveled south before turning and hunting several bottlenose dolphins off Strands Beach, the post said.
Photos show the black and white predators lunging from the water as a seemingly minuscule dolphins leaps over them, barely evading their toothy jaws.
.png "Screenshot (680).png")
.png "Screenshot (681).png")
.png "Screenshot (682).png")
Later that day, another tour group saw the orcas near the Dana Point Headlands, according to the agency. This time, they found another bottlenose dolphin and got to work.
“We followed these incredible Orca as they moved about 3 miles offshore and down the coast,” Dana Wharf Whale Watch said.
By the end of their trip, the boaters were trailing at least eight orcas.
Social media users were left in awe by the encounter.
“Unreal,” one person commented. “Experience of a lifetime!”
“Very dramatic,” another person wrote.
“It was incredible,” a third person, who was aboard one of the tours, commented. “Beautiful animals!”
Dana Point is about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
This story was originally published January 26, 2024 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Boaters have ‘experience of a lifetime’ when predators hunt dolphin. See ‘unreal’ moment."
