The Saturday sighting occurred during the sunset tour with San Diego Whale Watch, a local whale-watching tour agency.
SAN DIEGO — Two rare sperm whales were spotted around 15 miles off the San Diego coastline on Saturday. This sighting comes a week after another pair of these whales was sighted last Sunday.
The Saturday sighting occurred during the sunset tour with San Diego Whale Watch, a local whale-watching tour agency. According to the agency on Instagram, the crew cruised beyond the drop-off when they spotted the sideways sprouts from the sperm whales. They were able to see not just the pair of sperm whales, but also a breaching Mike whale during the tour.
“We got great looks at spouts, backs, dorsal fins, and strong arches with tail flukes lifted to the sky! We began to leave for home when a select few saw a massive whale breach about a mile away! It was one of the Sperm whales! The sunset was the cherry on the top!” San Diego Whale Watch said the Instagram post.
These sperm whales are considered the largest toothed whales on Earth, and are rarely seen in coastal waters. Their scarcity is partly due to their deep-diving behavior, but more significantly, their population was severely reduced by whaling. Global numbers dropped from one million to estimates between 300,000 and 845,000.
According to a previous CBS 8 report, the pair of sperm whales sighted by a different whale-watching agency last Sunday were both approximately 50 feet long, suggesting they were males. Male sperm whales are usually seen traveling together as “bachelor pods,” rather than with female pods.
Meanwhile, last week’s sighting on Sunday marked the first time in years that these sperm whales have been seen in the area.