Whale Species in San Diego
MOST POPULAR WHALE SIGHTINGS ON OUR CHARTERS

California Gray Whale

Finback Whales

Blue Whales

Humpback Whales

Orca Whales
DID YOU KNOW?
California Grey Whale

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Eschrichtius robustus
TYPE: Mammal
DIET: Benthic crustaceans
GROUP NAME: Pod
SIZE: Between 43 and 49 ft.
WEIGHT: Up to 40 tons.
Gray whales reach sexual maturity shortly after 5 years of age. The females gestation period is around 12 months and after giving birth calves are nursed for 7 – 8 months on its mother’s milk, similar to a human baby. The whale milk, however, is 53% fat content (human milk is 2% fat by comparison). One calf is born per mother every couple years.
OVER 10,000 GREY WHALES MIGRATE PAST SAN DIEGO EVERY YEAR
Breathing patterns are generally characterized by blowing 3 – 5 times in 15-30 second intervals before raising its fluke (tail fin) and submerging for 3 – 5 minutes, but a gray whale can stay submerged for up to 15 minutes, so practice patience when scanning the horizon.
Blue Whales
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Balaenoptera musculus
TYPE: Mammal
DIET: Krill and copepods
GROUP NAME: Pod
SIZE: Up to 98 ft.
WEIGHT: Up to 193 tons.

It is a beautiful paradox that the largest animal on the planet eats almost exclusively one of the smallest creatures on the planet, shrimp-like creatures called krill. The Blue Whale has baleen plates which it uses in filter feeding to extract the krill from the ocean water, devouring about 4 tons every single day!
Today there are about 15,000 blue whales which is considerably less than 5% of their pre-whaling population. Traveling in small pods, alone or as a pair, they can be found in oceans across the globe.
Orca

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Orcinus orca
TYPE: Mammal
DIET: Fish, cephalopods, mammals, sea birds and sea turtles
GROUP NAME: Pod
SIZE: Between 16 and 26 ft.
WEIGHT: Up to 6 tons
Orcas do not have baleen but have conical teeth (similar to a dog) and are opportunistic eaters, dining on a variety of animals such as fish, porpoises and seals.
Not commonly known but Orcas do migrate. Not on fixed routes, however, but instead follow food supplies. They have no natural enemies in the food chain, except humans and populations of Orcas are experiencing health issues caused by chemicals ingested by the animals which they consume. The Orca normally prefers colder nutrient rich water, such as in Alaska, but they can be found in oceans worldwide.
While it is considered rare, we do see Orca whales off of San Diego shores and there have been several sightings of a pod off the nearby island of Catalina.
We encourage you NOT to support organizations that use captive animals for entertainment.
Finback Whale
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Balaenoptera physalus
TYPE: Mammal
DIET: Small schooling fish, squid, crustaceans, copepods and krill
GROUP NAME: Pod
SIZE: Up to 85 ft.
WEIGHT: About 114 tons.

The Finback Whale is also a baleen whale, and they have a series of grooves (500-100) that run from the chin to the navel, which allow for expansion when the whale sucks in tons of water.
The Finback Whale is considered nomadic and can be found in all oceans of the world, they also migrate annually for food. Endangered due to the heavy impact of whaling on the Finback, the species is still trying to recover.
Humpback Whale

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Megaptera novaeangliae
TYPE: Mammal
DIET: Mostly krill and small schooling fish
GROUP NAME: Pod
SIZE: Between 35 and 52 ft.
WEIGHT: Between 25 and 30 tons.
Humpback Whales are most commonly recognized for their prominent traits. It is commonly known that they are very acrobatic and exhibit such behaviors like breaching or swimming on their back, and spy hopping. For these common behaviors make the Humpback one of the more playful of the whale species. Besides their iconic long arms or flippers, their music or song is renowned worldwide. The male Humpback Whale’s song lasts for approximately 15 minutes and may be repeated for hours at a time. This behavior is still a source of curiosity for scientists and marine mammal enthusiasts alike.
The Humpback Whales also feed on krill or small fish and filter it using baleen plates – eating up to 1.5 tons of krill each year. These whales are found in all the world’s oceans. Their population numbers around 35,000 and is a meager 1/3 of their original population.