90-foot sea creature spotted off the coast of California. See ‘extra rare’ treat

A group of boaters joined the 1% club after spotting the largest animal on the planet off the coast of California.

The July 14 excursion had a treat in store for passengers: a 90-foot blue whale, the San Diego Whale Watch said on Facebook.

The group first caught a glimpse of long-beaked common dolphins riding their boat’s wake before the pod went to snack on anchovies, onlookers said.

After getting the heads-up from another group of boaters, bystanders spotted the “extra rare sighting” — a “very thick healthy blue whale,” passengers said.

Blue whales can weigh up to 330,000 pounds and grow to 110 feet long, making their length about the same as the height of a 10-story building, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

They can live up to 90 years, though there was one that famously lived to be 110 years old, according to the nonprofit Whale and Dolphin Conservation.

The whale boaters spotted, who wasn’t “shy at all,” surfaced close to the boat, circling it while “exhibiting feeding behaviors,” the group said.

Onlookers even turned off the boat’s engine so they could “experience maybe the most incredible sound on earth”: the whale’s powerful exhale, the group said.

“The sound is so percussive that the whole atmosphere vibrates,” boaters said.

As for other boaters, later in the day, the seas “did not disappoint,” the group said.

As they entered deeper waters, they came across “the tall, column-shaped spout” of a blue whale, the group said.

They saw its “arching back” and even got the chance to spot a “peek-a-boo view of the tail flukes,” the group said.

As for the entirety of the day, passengers were in agreement that it was a “bad day not to be on the ocean,” the post said.

This story was originally published July 15, 2025 at 5:27 PM with the headline "90-foot sea creature spotted off the coast of California. See ‘extra rare’ treat."