Dana Wharf Whale Watch

02/05/2025

From our Orca encounter last week ~ CA56, and her small juvenile CA56C! Thanks to Alisa Schulman-Janiger/California Killer Whale Project for these IDs.

📸 Nona Brinkman Reimer

02/05/2025

Long-beaked Common Dolphin were seen on all three trips today. Dolphin were located above the harbor and off of South Laguna. At times dolphin were in a feeding frenzy with many birds, other times they were traveling up the coast. We even had a dolphin stampede on our third trip of the day. Sea lions were seen resting on the red navigational buoy on all trips. Dolphin antics leaping, jumping, and swimming always are delightful to observe.

Report & 📸 Nona Brinkman Reimer

02/04/2025

A Common Foggy Day! 🐬🐬🐬r

Two Coastal Bottlenose Dolphin were cruising the Dana Point Harbor before we left on our first trip. Even with the dense fog once we moved offshore, we located and caught up with a nice northbound pod of Long-beaked Common Dolphin which we left off Woods Cove. We passed a Mola mola on our return to the harbor. Straight out we found our second albeit smaller pod of dolphin or maybe they found us. We then ventured north in search of more cetaceans. Since we were unsuccessful, we gave these passengers “whale checks.” The fog seeemed to be clearing and sun shining at the end of the day. It was a beautiful cruise north and returning along the coast yet no more sightings were to be had so we “whale checked” our last trip of the day too! A Whale Check is a free ticket to come back and try again and never expires!

Report & 📸 Laura Lopez

02/03/2025

On today’s 8-hour trip, our first encounter was with an Elephant Seal about 20 miles offshore. A few miles farther out was a pod of 50-100 very active Short-beaked Common Dolphin. Off the south of Catalina Island we enjoyed a pod of about 200 Long-beaked Common Dolphin with several Sea Lions! This pod had numerous tiny calves and at one point changed directions with a brief stampede burst to the right and then left. We stopped on a large Mola mola who was resting on the surface. Even through we had calm seas most of the day, dense fog made marine mammals difficult to locate. Despite this, we enjoyed celebrating Alisa Schulman-Janiger’s birthday, learning and laughing with each other. It was a great day catching up with old friends and making new ones!

Report by Laura Lopez
📸 Laura Lopez & Gavriel Berghouse
Alisa & Birthday Cake 📸 Kim Crisp

02/02/2025

At 9am we held our first Wyland Art lesson of the season for children prior to whale watching at 10am. Contact Dana Wharf Whale Watching if you’d like to learn more about our Wyland Art contest every Saturday morning through April. Then, on this crisp clear Saturday, February 1st, the Dana Pride headed down the coast and located two southbound Gray Whales. One of the two would occasionally show its flukes on its terminal dive. The other, larger Gray Whale, seemed to lift its rostrum (head) out of the water but barely showed its dorsal (top) side and never showed its flukes. At 12pm we headed up the coast and found a large pod of Common Dolphin spread out over a vast area of water. There were many small calves in this pod, but little feeding was noted. On the way back we stopped at the red navigational SJR buoy to observe the resting sea lions. At 2:30pm we headed back up the coast and relocated this larger pod of Common Dolphin. Passengers delighted in the many young ones and watching the dolphin surf our stern wake and ride the bow wake. The sea lions, being nocturnal feeders, are just about ready to leave the buoy and begin their evening of foraging for food. Dinner time! Today’s total’s 2 southbound Gray Whales, hundreds of Common Dolphin, and resting sea lions.

Report & 📸 Nona Brinkman Reimer

02/01/2025

Leaving the Dana Point Harbor on this beautiful winter morning, our Pelagic Birding Trip observed with both Yellow and Black-crowned Night Herons, an Osprey, Great and Snowy Egrets and Great Blue Herons. A Cormorant trifecta with Brandt’s, Double Crested and even Pelagic cormorants along with Black Oystercatchers, Sanderlings, Willets, 3 types of Gulls ~ Western, California and even a Glaucous-winged Gull were on the jetty. This trip took us to the 14-mile and 267-mile banks. Sightings highlights include 2 Cocos B***y Birds, a Northern Shoveler, Cassin’s and Rhinoceros Auklets, a Bonaparte Gull, plus a Parasitic and Pomarine Jaeger made close passes as we moved closer to shore off San Mateo Point. At least 6 Mola mola were seen early in the trip and we stopped to get great looks at one just off our bow.

On our regular whale watch trips we saw 5 Gray Whales, a Humpback Whale offshore on a charter, Bottlenose and Common Dolphin.

Report & Bird, Sunrise 📸 Laura Lopez
Gray Whale 📸 John & Cindy

02/01/2025

What an amazing surprise we had yesterday! We will forever be in awe of these beautiful Orcas! 🖤🤍🖤🤍

It is absolutely life changing to see these creatures in person! Orcas are highly intelligent and social marine mammals that belong to the dolphin family. They are apex predators, meaning they have no natural predators, and are occasionally seen off the coast of Southern California. They can be seen in these photos trying to hunt their prey.

This trip turned out to be spectacular as we located the rarely-seen CA56S Orcas just above the harbor just a few miles offshore. In this pod were two smaller Orcas; and with Common Dolphin in the water, it appeared to be a school day for the younger Orcas as the older ones were teaching them how to circle around the dolphin and go for the kill. There is a reason Orca are known as an apex predator. We followed these Orcas as they hunted and traveled down our coast, never positive they actually took down any dolphin during the training session. This pod of Orcas are known as transients and are usually seen farther off of the coast. A special and rare treat for us today!

A word about the Orcas seen today from whale expert Alisa - Shulman Janiger:
CA56 and CA133, adult female Bigg’s Killer whales, first seen in Monterey Bay in the mid-1990s by Nancy Black, Co-Founder of our California Killer Whale Project (along with me).

They have only been documented on about 7 other occasions, sometimes with 6-12 years between sightings! The three younger whales are the offspring of CA56.

This is the first time that they have been seen as far south as Orange County!

(Alisa is also the Lead Research Biologist for the California Killer Whale Project and leads our 8 hour whale watching trips)

Photos by

01/31/2025

https://www.ocregister.com/2025/01/30/wyland-restoring-original-whaling-wall-in-laguna-beach/?utm_email=2464947DB47B343154EC6485E6&lctg=2464947DB47B343154EC6485E6&active=yesD&utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Story+Button&utm_campaign=scng-ocr-breaking-news&utm_content=alert

Fans are stopping by to watch the artist work on the mural, originally done in 1981 and the first of what would become 103 in a series around the world.

01/31/2025

Our Ultimate 8-hour Adventure THIS Sunday, February 2, 2025 still has a few spots left. You’ll never know what you might find!

https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/danawharf/items/26352/availability/1670389778/book/?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fdanawharf.com&from-ssl=yes&ga4t=G-2CHJ9R6QSF%2C4380601.1738295295__1738295295%3BG-T58JDZR73P%2C4380601.1738295295__1738295295%3B&g4=yes&cp=yes&csp=yes&back=https%3A%2F%2Fdanawharf.com%2Fwhale-watching%2F8-hour-ultimate-whale-watch%2F&ga=UA-11199586-1%2C4380601.1738295295%3B&u=bc500af1-cabb-4c4d-b980-249b54ed1200

01/30/2025

“The true importance of whales may never be understood by man, but has always been understood by the planet”-

Join us Saturdays for our Wyland Whale and Dolphin Adventure Art Lessons.

Wyland will be sharing his 💕 of art and marine life with an exclusive art lesson here

The art lesson package for children 3-12 includes an art lesson via video feed plus a FREE 2 hour Whale Watching 🚢! Each child that participates will be entered in a contest to win prizes and and the GRAND PRIZE budding artist will receive a gift from Wyland himself!

The art lessons are every Saturday starting until April 26th. Perfect timing to see Gray Whales right here in

For more details 👉 https://danawharf.com/cruises-and-events/wylands-whale-and-dolphin-adventure-art-lesson/

01/30/2025

2 Gray Whales and Common Dolphin!

A very large and spread-out pod of Common Dolphin were seen as soon as we left the Dana Point Harbor. These dolphin were hunting with small groups changing direction often. Calves of varying sizes were seen as these energetic dolphin raced to bow ride! We saw dolphin breaching close off our bow and, in the distance, as they displayed great aeronautical leaps and flips through the air. Later, a second pod was heading south off Aliso Beach. This pod was fast moving and surrounded us as they passed with some surfing and breaching in our wake. More scattered dolphin were found later in the day close to shore and then our drone pilot, Gabe spotted a breaching whale in the glare of the sun to the west. This Gray Whale turned towards the coast circling back north, then south in front of the headlands. A second southbound Gray Whale joined us traveling close to shore as well! We’re so glad to see this pair of Gray Whales and wish them well as they continue their journey.

Report & 📸 Laura Lopez
Drone 📸 Gavriel Berghouse

01/29/2025

Treat your sweetheart to a breathtaking sunset on the ocean this Valentine’s Day! 💕🐋💕🐋💕🐋💕

Whether it’s a romantic whale watching adventure or a Harbor Wine Tasting cruise, you are sure to have an amazing time on the water! Check out all the activities we have going on over that whole weekend as well! Link in bio for reservations.

01/29/2025

It was Common Dolphin Tuesday on our trips today. Common Dolphin were seen unusually close to shore off of South Laguna on our first trip as well as 1-2 miles off shore throughout most of the day. Dolphins could be seen feeding along with sea lions and a variety of birds in tight feeding frenzies. Some Common Dolphin were spread out over the water in smaller pods traveling both up and down the coast. Always good to see a tagged sea lion resting on the navigational buoy. That indicates it was rescued, rehabilitated, and released. This male sea lion looked quite healthy. Whale checked our last trip as we saw no whales or dolphins. We keep our eyes on the water, anticipating more Gray Whale sightings in the coming days.

Report & 📸 Nona Brinkman Reimer

01/29/2025

Imagine having lunch on the San Clemente Pier at the Fisherman’s Restaurant and this beauty swims by! 🐋✨🐋 This southbound Gray Whale happened to swim by Saturday for some lucky diners and whale watchers! What a treat 🤩 have you had a similar experience while on the beach?
Photos by

01/28/2025

🦚We saw what looks like the “Peacock of the Sea”🦚 yesterday on our way in from our adventures. A very unique and rare bird called the Pelagic Cormorant. 🦅

A small, slender cormorant with a thin, dark bill.
Blackish overall with glossy green head and body and purplish neck. Breeding adults have white patches on sides of rump and limited reddish face. Strictly coastal, where it nests on cliffs. Dives to capture fish. Smaller than Brandt’s or Red-faced Cormorants, with a more slender neck and a thinner dark bill. Fairly extensive range along west coast of North America and in East Asia.

Such a cool find! We see all kinds of unique birds on our Pelagic Bird Tours as well! We have a sold out trip this Friday but keep your ears open for the next one!
Photos by

01/28/2025

With partly cloudy yet beautiful blue skies, we could see Saddleback Mountain had a light dusting of snow from the recent storm! As we left the Dana Point Harbor, a few Coastal Bottlenose Dolphin briefly appeared on the starboard side of the Ocean Adventures! Heading offshore to the southwest were very spread out pods Long-beaked Common Dolphin and appeared to have no calves in the herds. Further south was a larger group off San Onofre and a huge Mola mola several feet in diameter unbothered by the dolphin racing by. One passenger said “Seeing that big fish was worth the price of admission!” More Common Dolphin were found later in the day and feeding frenzies developed just south of the San Clemente Pier. Anchovies could be seen flying in the air with the dolphin in pursuit and sea birds were plucking these tiny fish off the water’s surface. Many California Sea Lions have taken shelter in the harbor from the recent storms with none or only a few seen on the navigational buoys. When we returned from our noon trip, a Pelagic Cormorant the jetty and gone 30 minutes later when we left on our last trip!

Report & 📸 Laura Lopez

01/27/2025

Happy Monday from the Dolphin and Whale Watching Capital of the World! 🐬🌎🐋

Photo by