Killer whales harass gray whale off Palos Verdes

On Wednesday, five of the ten transient orcas that have been seen every day of 2012 in Southern California waters harassed a gray whale about ½ mile off the Point Vicente Interpretive Center on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Volunteer spotters for the ACS-LA Gray Whale Census and Behavior Project watched in awe from high a top the Palos lookout. Several boats were on scene getting an even more up close and personal look.

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who runs the project, told Pete Thomas Outdoors that one adult and four younger killer whales were involved in the confrontation, but the incident ended when the gray whale entered the kelp zone. The researcher said the whale was not injured.

While whale watchers have enjoyed the treat of seeing orcas for the past several days, there is little doubt that the migrating gray whales and sea lions share their enthusiasm. On several occasions in the past four days, the pod of orcas has been seen feeding on or eating sea lions off Los Angeles and Orange County.

Diane Alps posted the following on Facebook. Alisa Shulman- Janiger is out on the water and witnessed the attack on the sea lion. Can't wait to hear from her later today.

Killer whales actually belong to the order, Delphinidae and are the largest dolphins. They can swim up to 30-mph and eat up to 5% of their body weight each day. For an average orca, that means about 500 pounds of food per day. That has a lot of Southern California sea lions that are used to being protected by law in the crosshairs of these apex predators.

After their run in with the gray whale, the five orcas joined the other five this afternoon where all 10 were spotted off El Segundo. Transient orcas are more often seen off Monterey but lately have been seen more frequently off Southern California, perhaps because of the abundance off sea lions.

Whale watchers are hoping that the pod of killer whales are not headed north while the mammalian population may be breathing a sigh of relief for the time being.

Photo: Two orcas swimming off Newport Beach, one with a a sea lion carcass in it's mouth.

Thor Brisbin: from Newport Landing/Davy's Locker