I just heard about this on the news and it took me by complete surprise so I had to share it with you. As most of you know I’m a native Floridian and have spent much of my life in and near the ocean. But I’ve never seen or even heard of Orcas in our waters. But this past weekend, Orcas were been spotted in South Florida.

Florida waters are normally warm and this year the oceans are extremely warm. But Orcas usually prefer cooler waters so it’s surprising to see them here. Typically you’d find them in the Arctic, Pacific Northwest and the Northern Atlantic oceans. Although they do travel in all of the oceans around the globe, including South Florida seeing them this far south is definitely a rarity.

Apparently, last Saturday a group of fisherman were fishing 20 miles off the coast of Key Largo, located in the Upper Keys, when a group of orcas came up to their boat. It’s one thing to see one of these large whales in captivity, but it’s a bit unnerving to have a group of them get this close to you in open waters when your in a boat.

Marine biologists are stumped as to why they came to South Florida. But the group hung around the boat for a few minutes and then went off into the ocean. One of them even had a fish in his mouth. Luckily the fisherman were all fine.

Orcas are family oriented and live in groups or pods of up to 40 members. They can live anywhere from 50-80 years in the wild. An adult male can grow up to 26 feet in length and weigh up to 13,200 pounds. A baby orca, or calf is born weighing around 350 pounds. They’re very smart and are considered to be one of the most intelligent marine mammals.

We may never know why they were here, but I like to see it as a blessing 😊

Hope you enjoyed this post today, thanks for stopping by!!

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