My dream of seeing killer whales (Orcinus orca) locally finally came true on December 25th, 2023. The orcas in my photographs are Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales hunting bottlenose dolphins. They’re more often spotted in Mexican and Central American waters and they also visit Hawaii. For anyone who may see this post and be concerned by how close we were, I was shooting with a 100-400mm telephoto lens and when they approached San Diego Whale Watch’s boat, the Privateer’s engines were cut. Quite a few of my photos here are cropped while maintaining the territorial views that give the sighting some context.
