WATCH: Rarely Seen Killer Whales Spotted off OC Coast

Whale watchers got an up-close look of a pod of rare Biggs killer whales off the coast of Orange County. The encounter occurred on a recent expedition out of Dana Point on a Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari boat.

Biggs killer whales—also known as transient whales—feed on mammals such as sea lions, dolphins, gray whale calves and even the occasional deer.

According to animal researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, some of the whales in the pod were seen near Dana Point last January, and may have been involved in gray whale kills off Monterey. A young calf was spotted in the pod during the recent whale-watching trip that followed the pod to Newport Beach Harbor.