Weird Blue 'Jellies' Wash Ashore; Blue Whales Return To SoCal Coast

DANA POINT, CA—As the saying goes, there's always a bigger fish. What started in April with a plethora of tiny krill and piles of palm-sized By-the-Wind Sailors has ultimately attracted some of the largest creatures on earth: Blue Whales, according to Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching COO Donna Kalez.

Over the weekend, whale-watchers from Newport Beach, Dana Point, and Oceanside were treated to the sight of large sunfish snacking on a strange jellyfish-like creature that has swarmed area waters and beaches. They also saw a bevy of dolphins, minke whales, gray whales, humpback whales, fin whales, and blue whales—some of the largest creatures on Earth.

This weekend, Captain Steve Burkhalter piloted 20 passengers onboard the Ocean Adventure on an 8-hour ultimate whale watch tour. Captain Todd Mansur educated the crowd on the Blue whale and why the sighting was so exciting.

Blue Whale season typically starts in May, according to Kalez. All the sightings are signs of a classic El Nino warm water pattern, she said.

"We've had humpbacks in the area. They've been close to shore, breaching, tail slapping, and other cool behaviors while we are also seeing Fin whales," she said. "Usually, when the Fin whales camp out, they attract their larger cousin, the Blue Whale."

"Captain Todd Masur said this Blue Whale was a male about 60 feet in length. We watched this whale feeding for several cycles when, all of a sudden, it began porpoising," she said. It traveled from Laguna Main Beach to just north of the Dana Point Headlands at about 14 knots."

An influx of small blue "By-the-Wind Sailors" that you may have stepped upon on the shoreline has attracted a large amount of sunfish to the region. Sunfish, unique for the method they swim sideways, can reach up to 2,000 pounds and eat many pounds of the Sailors daily, according to Dana Wharf's naturalist Nona Reimer.

The Sailors appear like strange blue creatures with a clear jelly-like sail upon their backs.

Although they look like one organism, they are actually many small beings that combine to form a bigger colony that floats across the ocean, driven by currents and the breeze, until they beach themselves, as has been recently seen from Newport Beach to Oceanside.

Even though they die upon "beaching themselves," they can sting, as they are related to jellyfish - specifically the Man O'War, according to Reimer.

As always, dolphins abound during whale-watching tours, eating small fish and even the Sailors, Kalez said.

"There's a reason Dana Point is the whale-watching capital of the world," Kalez said. "It's amazing to have so much life right off our coastline."

Learn more about upcoming whale-watching tours at www.danawharfwhalewatching.org.