A Good Day Not to be a Turtle:
Being Unwitting Witnesses to a Group of Orcas Playing with their Food
May 31, 2026
by Tanya
11-minute read
We are on Day 5 of our 7-day sea safari on the Sea of Cortez. As has been our daily routine, we meet our guests at their La Ventana beachfront hotel a few minutes before 7 AM. The mood remains jovial, albeit slightly subdued. Spending long days at sea can be physically draining, especially if you don’t keep yourself properly hydrated. The waves give you a beating, while the wind blows the moisture out of you.
Our guests, who hail from France, were also here with us last July. While the orcas in the Sea of Cortez were absent at the time, we had nice encounters with pilot whales, dolphins, and humpback whales. This time, they want to see what nature has in store for us in May. Photographer extraordinaire Patrick would also like to update his images of the toothed whales, which he took on a previous trip a few years prior.
With Patrick and the gang in July of the year prior
We walk down the stone steps to the sandy shore, where our private panga waits for us a few meters away from the water’s edge. After loading our coolers and cameras and performing a backwards shimmy to get ourselves onboard, we set off in search of wildlife big and small.
What is a Sea/an Ocean Safari Anyway?
A sea safari is basically the marine counterpart of a road trip. You go out on a skiff or a bigger vessel with the objective of encountering wildlife. Be prepared for long hours of watching water pass by before you spot some sign of activity on the horizon. You can get anything from distant sightings of animal action to up-close interactions with wildlife. On a good day, pods of whales come out to play and big fish hurl themselves out of the water while hunting. If you’re really lucky, you might encounter some orcas in the Sea of Cortez. We hope to be in the right place at the right time to be able to witness these natural spectacles.
The waters around the Baja peninsula are very rich in life, so the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean are ideal places for a safari. People come to Magdalena Bay for the sardine run that draws striped marlin, large schools of mahi-mahi, sharks, and sea lions. Tourists who have contracted “orca madness” flock to La Ventana, wanting to swim with Willy’s relatives. This rapidly-growing town is no longer just a community of kiteboarders and wing foilers. Nowadays, kitesurfing season and “orca season” are a mainstay in La Ventana’s activity calendar.
Some underwater and topside snaps from our sea safari.
Note the difference between an orca fluke (third image) and a humpback whale tail (fourth image).
When is Orca Season in La Ventana?
In the past, people have observed huge congregations of mobulas (Mobula munkiana), also known as Munk’s devil rays, frequenting the bay of La Ventana in the spring. Orcas that were on a mobula diet followed their food source and ended up in the waters around La Ventana and La Paz. It stands to reason that due to the amount of prey available, the chances of seeing their predator are higher during this period. Nevertheless, it was inevitably established that “orca season” was from late April through June, which nicely covered what used to be the town’s lean months when the snowbirds had departed with the north winds.
After almost 20 years of living in the area, we can definitely say that the orcas are in the Sea of Cortez year-round. They do not stay in the same spot; instead, they travel all over the place from Cabo San Lucas and Cabo Pulmo to La Ventana and La Paz, all the way up to the northernmost part of the Gulf of California. We have both resident and transient orcas in the area, and distinct populations can be found here. They also have specific food preferences. Some eat fish, while other like sea lions. Sightings of some orcas coincide with the arrival of wintering whales from the Arctic. And, it turns out that some orcas especially enjoy the taste of turtles.
How Easy is it to Find Orcas in the Sea of Cortez?
Unlike in theme parks, these orcas live in the wild and we have to work to find them. We do not give any guarantees to our guests that they are going to see orcas on the trip. We prefer to go out with no expectations and be open to whatever gifts nature decides to send our way. Also, due to the growing popularity of sea safaris and trips that are specifically sold as “orca tours,” La Ventana Bay can get congested with boats. During peak season, as many as forty boats are out on the water at one time. If we do manage to spot their black-and-white silhouettes in the water, up to 30 boats can converge around the animals. Any attempts at swimming with them are chaotic at best and the experience is reduced to flyby sightings.
Today, we decide to head north. We follow the coast until we see some dolphins in the channel. We hang out with them for a while before crossing over to Cerralvo Island. More dolphins are frolicking on the other side, but we maintain our northbound course. As we get closer to La Reina, a local dive site that is home to some sea lions, we start to see more activity in the water. The fish are quite frisky and we small fry are stirring up the surface with their frenzied movements. We watch the various hunts for a while, cheering each time we spot a marlin or a dorado leaping out of the water. Then we decide to move on.
One Lucky Day
More than 3 hours in and almost halfway through today’s sea safari, we are faced with the choice of heading down the coast to look for the mobulas that we encountered the day before, or taking our chances on the other side of the island. Sten makes the decision to do something different today: head over to the other side and hope for the best.
“I found them!” yells Captain Isaias.
A group of 4 orcas happen to be getting ready to have their lunch, so they are busy going about their business. Seeing that they don’t mind our presence, Captain Isaias positions our boat for our first in-water encounter with them. We have been wishing for this kind of opportunity for two years, but we are still not prepared for the whirlpool of emotions washing over us when we enter the water. Joy, excitement, trepidation, empathy, sorrow, and other feelings that we have yet to identify. The experience is simply surreal.
Orcas Playing “Turtle Football”
We watch three familiar black-and-white shapes heading towards us. One of the females is lazily following a turtle. As we get closer to the group, we observe the female nudging the turtle with her nose, then slowly submerging with the turtle. After some time, she moves her snout off the turtle and watches it gradually rising to the surface. She swims up and nudges the turtle back down before it can take a breath. Occasionally, she allows the turtle to break the surface. We also take our faces out of the water to whoop for joy for the poor game.
The female gets tired of playfully drowning the turtle, so she passes it on to the second female. They go on with their version of football for a while, spinning the turtle like a disc with their noses. The third female waits in the sidelines for her turn, while the juvenile swims back and forth between the group and our skiff, which piques its curiosity. The juvenile swims around the boat, wondering about its strange shape, and then proceeds to exhale right beside our panga.
An Encounter That’s Almost Spiritual
But the game is losing its novelty. The orcas decide to tag us in and one of them passes the turtle over to us.
Uh-oh, we’re unsure how this will play out.
But then, the turtle slides up on Sten’s back to find cover! Feeling the turtle settle on his back, Sten quickly disengages himself and swims away from it. It’s not a good idea to provide shelter to prey and make yourself the bigger target…
We interact with the orcas for around 2 hours. Since we are a pretty ways off from the mainland, we don’t see any other boats for a good while. The orcas are already ending their lunch when the first boat arrives, so they disperse and begin to move on. We see more boats approaching from the horizon. While we could stay longer, we don’t mind sharing the opportunity with others. We had our moment alone with them and it is something that will be etched into our memories for many years to come.
Three years ago, I had the good fortune to be in the water with orcas for the first time after our third dive for the day at La Reina. I was able to take a good look at the 2 orcas that passed quite close to us during that chance encounter in October. This time, we were eye-to-eye with the orcas; landing almost on top of them on a few occasions. When you realize how big they look underwater, you make sure to tuck your arms and legs in when they swim by! Luckily, this particular group were on a turtle diet, so they were not particularly interested in us.
If you’re wondering what happened to the turtle in the end…
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