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Pacific Offshore Expeditions
Channel Islands


March 2026 Killer Whale Reports
Underwater photo taken by passenger Hongming Zheng on our March 20th trip. The ocean that day was so calm the surface reflected the orca perfectly! Plus very blue water... a rare set up in the Channel Islands!! Awesome shot Mr. Zheng. March is usually our windiest month. However, if you live in southern California you might have noticed something unusual about March 2026. It was much warmer than normal, and with that brought weather conditions that allowed us to operate Kille

Capt. Ryan
Apr 5


February 2026 Reports and Updates
Photo by Capt. Ryan from our 2/28 Quest. February is the dead of winter and there are many Killer Whales around! It's just a question of whether we can GET to them. And this past month there was challenges surrounding that. To be honest, it was a bit demoralizing for both our crew and customers Feburary 2026. As you may know, our Quests are scheduled for every week Friday through Sunday. That gave us 12 scheduled Killer Whale trips for this month. How many of those were cance

Capt. Ryan
Mar 12


January 2026 Summary
The past month we have enjoyed incredibly stable weather which leant itself to off the charts Killer Whale encounters! Normally a winter month like January has several storm systems roll through and disrupt our schedule. But Jan 9th through 31st we didn't have to cancel a single trip due to weather. In that time span, we operated 16 quests and sighted Killer Whales on 15 of them! On one particular day, 40 Killer Whales were seen. You may be wondering... is this the peak? What

Capt. Ryan
Feb 3


December Schedule Discussion
Many folks are inquiring.... "What about trips during the Christmas Season?!" In years past, we have operated Killer Whale Quests with good success in the time immediatley before and after Christmas. This year, we do not have any trips on our calendar in the time frame. The reason why is that our schedule in Newport Beach is very much full, day and night, for 2 hour trips during this time. If we have Oxnard commitments on top of this, it's a big stressor to our scheduling. On

Capt. Ryan
Dec 8, 2025


Killer Whale Quest Season 3 is about to begin!
This past Friday and Saturday, August 15th and 16th we operated two 8 hour whale watching trips in the Santa Barbara Channel. The goal...

Capt. Ryan
Aug 19, 2025


Killer Whale Quest '24/'25 Season has concluded. Next season begins late August 2025!
Thank you to all our customers, new and repeats who made this season possible. Orcas are both the apex predators and the apex of whale...

Capt. Ryan
Jun 7, 2025


Killer Whale Quest Season Ending Soon: Discussion
Spring has been a battle with the weather! It's such a beautiful time to be amongst the Channel Islands as they come alive with color....

Capt. Ryan
Apr 26, 2025


February Recap
As anticipated, February brought some weather with it, and many cancellations were made along with a few trips with no sightings. We...

Capt. Ryan
Mar 1, 2025


Late Winter and Spring Weather and Availability: "Things to Know"
We have been on a great streak from January 2nd to January 24th, with 9 trips in a row encountering Killer Whales. As everyone knows,...

Capt. Ryan
Jan 29, 2025


First Lissodelphis sighting of the season!
Sometimes a "bonus" bucket list animal is sighted during our winter and spring Killer Whale Quests, and one pf them is called a "Northern...

Capt. Ryan
Jan 16, 2025


January bringing the mojo back...
The year ended with some disappointment as our effort was inhibited by less than ideal conditions and we turned up two "skunks" in a row:...

Capt. Ryan
Jan 9, 2025


First Week of January: Improved weather and multiple trip opportunities!
Since December 22nd, the weather in the Channel Islands has been FOUL almost every day! Large swell, fog, and strong winds have either...

Capt. Ryan
Dec 27, 2024


December trip availability and plans update 12/13
We decided to bring our 30' Zodiac boat up to Oxnard for December 20th through 25th. This is a peak time of year for Killer Whale...

Capt. Ryan
Dec 13, 2024


A summary of where we've been and where we are +"Season two" stats so far
Our first official Channel Islands Killer Whale Quest was on December 24th, 2023. Prior to this, we had operated a few "for fun" trips...

Capt. Ryan
Dec 5, 2024
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