A group of whale watchers off the coast of San Diego saw a rare young killer whale swimming with dolphins on Saturday, according to NBC News. It was the second time that the rare whale, "Mel," had been spotted in a three-day period.
People got excited and started taking pictures, and the commotion seemed to draw the whale's attention. Passengers told NBC that the whale swam toward the boat as if he wanted to get a better look. The whale swam around the boat in circles, going underneath the boat and then surfacing.
The boat's passengers first spotted the whale around 10:45 a.m. and were surprised to see the whale swimming with a pod of over 1,000 dolphins. Dolphins are a much more common sight in the area than orcas. It's rare for a young killer whale to separate from its pod, especially male whales, who spend their entire lives with their mothers.
"It's just not a normal occurrence for our area," Melissa Galieti, a photographer for San Diego Whale Watch, told NBC. "He's coming up from an area in Mexico.
"That's where his pod, or possibly a pod that has adopted him, is located," she continued. "He's been seen about 120 miles south of San Diego and he's come up here a couple times on his own."
"Mel" was the first orca that Galieti had ever seen, and she told NBC that the whale was named after her. "Mel" is the only orca whale to be seen off the coast of San Diego.
"Mel" is estimated to be in his teens with an estimated weight of between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds and length of 16 to 18 feet long. A fully-grown orca whale can reach 30-feet in length.
A recent documentary, "Blackfish," was recently released about an orca living at SeaWorld Orlando that killed a trainer in 2010.
Video footage of the whale.
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