Orcas vs Humpback Whales and Dolphins in San Diego! 10/16/25

What's that sound? That's not a boat. It's a stampede! A dolphin stampede this intense can only mean one thing. Orcas. Killer whales. And I'm gonna tell you all about how they hunted dolphins and even had some interesting interactions with both humpback whales and sea lions. But we gotta start our story at the beginning well before we encountered any mammals at all. The day began with tuna and this is what you call a foamer as the tuna hunted in spectacular fashion. And this got the attention of a giant. A fin whale. The second largest animal on the planet. The anchovy swarmed into a tighter and tighter ball setting the table for the party's newest arrivals. Humpback whales. Dozens of them. Drawn in by the endless bounty of fish. Thousands of common dolphins were racing over to join in the frenzy when we noticed something on the horizon that got our attention. The dolphins were stampeding. With the drone already in the air I sent it hurtling towards the commotion. These dolphins weren't hunting. These dolphins were being hunted. Our well-known pod of eastern tropical pacific killer whales had just cornered a mom and calf common dolphin. It was a chaotic scene and I kept the drone glued to the common dolphins waiting for the inevitable moment the orcas would snag their prey. But that moment never came. The killer whales were distracted. The humpback whales were in the middle of the action and they made it clear they weren't too happy having orcas around. The orcas decided to abandon this hunt and less than a mile away other members of the pod were pursuing dolphins of their own. These dolphins would not be so lucky. For the killer whales the moments after a successful hunt are a time of bonding and celebration. But this celebration had a couple of uninvited guests. Sea lions. For whatever reason these ETP killer whales don't seem to view sea lions as a food source. I've been observing members of this pod since 2018 and on multiple occasions I've witnessed sea lions swimming with the orcas. Oftentimes trying to steal bites of whatever the killer whales had just hunted. What amazes me the most about these interactions is that it appears the sea lions can somehow tell the difference between our eastern tropical pacific killer whales and the California transient killer whales that would absolutely make a snack of any pinniped. It's a beautiful reminder of just how many mysteries life and our oceans still hold.