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 watching experience, and it was awesome to see so many people motivated to join us on our Quests. Some folks took planes to get here, other people drove multiple times from Orange and San Diego Counties with lots of freeway and traffic time to come aboard the JAEGER or TERN in the beautiful northern Channel Islands.

Shout out to customer Mike P who joined us over a DOZEN times this season alone, and always brought his wife's wonderful baked goods to enjoy. Thank you to the other very loyal repeat customers, many who joined us 6 or 8 or 10x over the season!! Gordon, Dawn, Jordan, Michelle, OrcaBrad, Jonathan, Juan, Nath and Kristie + maybe others, sorry if I'm missing you! So many fun memories, photos, and long days on the water enjoyed. Anyone who comes out more than once is so appreciated... it shows that you "get it" and we love people who think like we do!

The season's success far exceeded expectations. After Season One's learning curve where we experienced a 51.6% success rate in locating Killer Whales, the goal was to try and get Season Two to 75%. The goal was quickly realized and blown past with a final realized success rate of 82%, which represented 41 trips with Orcas out of 50 trips operated! Lessons have been learned in Season Two, and it's totally possible for us to improve on this stellar percentage for Season Three, which of course will be the goal.

During the season we had several "hot streaks" with 8/28 to 11/8 finding orcas six trips in a row. 1/2 to 1/24 was nine trips in a row. And finally we ended the season with a bang: FIFTEEN trips in a row with Killer Whales 3/25 to 6/5. Sadly our final Quest on 6/6 did not encounter orcas despite calm conditions and two prior days with sightings. A humble reminder that it's WILDlife we are after, and this is really just a game of hide and seek with an animal that we are still trying to understand, but will never fully.

Season 3 will start in late August 2025 and will run again through early June 2026. Dates are added to the calendar incrementally and what you see on the calendar at any given time does not represent the full extent of our plans for the season.

Trips aboard the Zodiac will operate out of Newport Beach in June, July, and August for 4, 8, and maybe 10 hour trip durations for generalized whale watching. The JAEGER will remain in Oxnard this Summer and it's possible some last minute "weather window" trips will be offered sporadically for general offshore exploration: large aggregations of Blue Whales and "bucket list" Beaked Whales would be on the menu.