San Diego Bay Photos 

On March 11th, 2008 we came across a pod of roughly 30-40 Orcas about 10 miles outside of Pt. Loma. Water conditions were incredible and Bill was able to get 200 or so great shots of the whales. That got the attention of KFMB News8,  which in turn got the attention of several whale researchers. 

This is the link to the first interview done by KFMB on the evening news in San Diego.

Did he say "pucker factor" on public TV???

Yes, I think he did! We made him promise to be

more polite in the 2nd interview

And this is interview #2, done a few days later.

Susan Berta of the Orca Network (www.orcanetwork.org)

Had this to say about the Killer Whale photos:

Bill Lewis' photos of the large pod of Offshore orcas near Pt. Loma, CA in March 2008 provided excellent photo identification opportunities for orca researchers anxious to learn more about this elusive community of orcas off the Pacific Coast. Since these orcas spend most of their time "offshore", they have been difficult to locate and photo identify. Bill Lewis' amazing encounter and many excellent photographs enabled researchers to identify the orcas and add to the small amount of data currently collected on Offshore orcas. It was exciting to connect with Bill, see the large number of high quality photographs he had obtained during his encounter with the Offshore orcas, and to pass these along to researchers who were all very excited to have new data to add to their research on this community of orcas.
Susan Berta, Orca Network, Greenbank, WA

 We still don't understand why we were the only one to see the Orcas that day. There were at least two professional whale-watching megaboats out, Hornblower and Producer. Conditions were such that whale 'blows' could be seen a mile away.  Bill had a passenger on board from Orange County who thought that such sightings must be sort of 'normal'! We wish!

 This guy was the big one we called "Grandpa"

 Nice of Mama to show off her calf for us!

 Link to whale pictures for sale!

 It seems these whales had never been seen south of Dana Point, and according to one whale researcher, the last time they were photographed at all was more than three years ago, Feb 14th, 2005.