A group of boaters set out for a whale-watching adventure in Monterey Bay<\/a>, California, when they were treated to a sudden emergence of a large pod of killer whales hunting down dolphins.<\/p>\n THOUSANDS OF GIANT LION’S MANE JELLYFISH SIGHTINGS TRIGGER PUBLIC SAFETY ALERTS FOR NEW ENGLAND BEACHGOERS<\/a><\/p>\n A video shared by Luke Kilpatrick of Sanctuary Cruises<\/a> shows the large aquatic mammals quickly chasing down dolphins, often striking from below and sending them flying.<\/p>\n Killer whales rely on underwater sound to feed, communicate and navigate through various environments in the ocean<\/a>.<\/p>\n FILE – A Bigg’s killer whale hunting. (Image credit: Sam Murphy, Island Adventures Whale Watching)<\/p>\n According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), killer whales use a coordinated hunting strategy and work as a team to catch prey, as the large pod leaps out of the water in pairs.<\/p>\n Pods of these whales consist of a few to 20 or more closely related individuals, with larger groups sometimes forming a temporary social interaction.<\/p>\n GREAT WHITE SHARK RIPPLE TRACKED OFF CANADA COAST AFTER TRAVELING 350 MILES IN A WEEK<\/a><\/p>\n Orca whales surface to breath as they swim close to shore near Lim Kiln State Park on San Juan Island by the Salish Sea. 2004.<\/p>\n (Dean J. Koepfler \/ Tacoma News Tribune \/ Tribune News Service \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n “As a whole, the species has the most varied diet of all cetaceans, but different populations are usually specialized in their foraging behavior and diet,” NOAA<\/a> said. “They often use a coordinated hunting strategy, working as a team like a pack of wolves.”<\/p>\n LARGEST KNOWN BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN STRANDING OFF NEW ENGLAND COAST PROMPTS MASSIVE RESCUE EFFORT<\/a><\/p>\n A beaching male Bigg’s killer whale in Western Prince. (Image: Bethany Shimasaki)<\/p>\n Throughout the video, the killer whales repeatedly pop out of the water, often at high speeds, almost out of nowhere, before launching more dolphins into the sky.<\/p>\n CANNIBALISTIC JELLYFISH ARE INVADING THE PRECIOUS LAGOONS OF VENICE WITH NO WAY OF REMOVING THEM<\/a><\/p>\n These animals<\/a> are considered apex predators at the top of the food chain. They will base their diet on the region they live in, such as in the Pacific Northwest<\/a>, where killer whales exclusively eat fish, salmon and other marine mammals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of whale watchers was surprised by a large pod of killer whales hunting dolphins in Monterey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2113,7,9,8,90862,10645,21659,90863,1181,978,7662],"class_list":["post-407491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-animals","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-earth-space","tag-noaa","tag-ocean","tag-stay22","tag-us","tag-west","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Biggs-killer-whale-hunting.-Sam-Murphy-Island-Adventures-Whale-Watching.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Orca](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/GettyImages-1189679480.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/3.-Breaching-male-Biggs-killer-whale.-Bethany-Shimasaki-Western-Prince.jpg\"){kind=spacer}
<\/p>\n