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Local naturalist Rob Fowler caught a pretty spectacular sight on Humboldt Bay this afternoon. He was able to grab some video of it, and he was kind enough to share that video with us.

Here, let him tell the story:

Hey Lost Coast Outpost, here’s a video of what seems to be a family group of five Orcas that were far into the Eureka Channel of Humboldt Bay this afternoon.

We first encountered them about a 1/4 mile south of the Wharfinger building/Marina Way and last saw them before they dove and disappeared as they headed northwest of Woodley Island and seemed to continue heading north.

They were then refound about a 1/2 hour later from Samoa and were headed south. That observer was Cedric Von Briel. And the Cal Poly boat also saw them as they were heading in from a deep water pelagic birding trip that headed as far as 70 miles offshore.

Here’s another shorter video (below) when they got pretty close to the boat. Seemed like a big male (big tall dorsal fin) and at least four females and a smaller younger animal with them.

This was after coming in from a pelagic birding trip that I organized as a chase trip for the very rare Short-tailed Albatross, three of which were seen last Sunday offshore of Humboldt Bay over the Eel River Canyon.

CORRECTION: This happened at about 4 p.m. this afternoon, Fowler tells us, not in the morning as we originally wrote. Apologies.