False killer whale pod sighting at Summerland Beach

By an edhat reader

On Friday I observed what I thought was a very unusual dolphin pod hunting what appeared to be large fish.  The pod  looked like dolphins but were so large, so dark, and incredibly fast they caught my attention and I watched for over an hour.    Due to their extraordinary size and speed and dark color they were not the dolphins we usually see on our coastline.  I don’t know how long this pod has been in this area but this is definitely what I saw:

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/false-killer-whale

And apparently they are very rare – endangered even,.  They were team hunting, they were repeatedly jumping fully out of the water and diving in, some racing ahead of the prey and turning it back to the others. There were many. They even seemed to occasionally throw a very large fish out of the water and chase it down.  

I regret I did not have a camera with me.  Other people were at the beach watching as well.  Maybe someone else got some photos.  Or maybe the pod has been  there for awhile and it is not a rare sighting.  I hope someone with more knowledge can weigh in on this.