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Pod of Killer Whales Makes Rare Visit to Monterey Bay by Mariel Padilla New York Times, June 22, 2019

There has been a startling number of killer whale sightings in
the bay in June, normally an off-season month for whale watchers

It happens rarely in Monterey Bay -- perhaps a handful of times a decade at most.

Normally, the killer whales that frequent the area are familiar to marine biologists and others who track them.

So when a killer whale she didn't recognize surfaced just 100 feet from a whale watching boat this past week, Nancy Black, a marine biologist and owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch, was surprised.

The whale was accompanied by seven others that Ms. Black had never seen in the 30 years she has worked in the bay area.

"They were very active and social, exuberant and breaching," Ms. Black said. "They kind of poked their head out of the water, curious of the boat. It was exciting for everyone on the boat to see."

Researchers in California immediately contacted scientists farther north to verify the identities of these eight whales. They confirmed that seven of the whales in the pod were from the Pacific Northwest. Among them: a female with her daughter and two grandchildren, and another female with two kids. There was also a calf that none of the scientists had seen.

The sighting of the eight killer whales in Monterey Bay came during a month when there has been an unusual number of whale sightings in the bay. "We've seen about 35 different whales on nine different days this month," Ms. Black said. "Normally, there would only be a couple sightings in all of June."

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