Did a rare hybrid blue-fin whale show up off California coast?
Captain Jim Zeimantz said he knew from the size of the large spout shooting into the sky that the whale in the distance would be a massive blue whale or a big fin whale. But he never thought it would be both  possibly a rare hybrid of the worlds two largest whale species. The sighting happened about eight miles off the Dana Point coastline on Sunday, June 6, and again early Monday, June 7. A hybrid whale, called Flue is a male and his parents are believed to be a blue whale mother and a fin whale father. The creature has been spotted periodically off the coast of Southern California 13 times between September 2004 and August 2020, according to Capt. Daves Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari. Local whale expert Alisa Schulman-Janiger, however, said the whale was actually a fin whale that has a similar notch on its dorsal fin as the hybrid that has been spotted previously off the coast. Zeimantz said he was out with two passengers about three miles away from where the spout was first spotted, and reached the 70- to 80-foot whale in about 15 minutes. At the time, we just saw the dorsal fin and it was different than a normal blue whale fin. There was something different about the whale, he said. He also mentioned that there was another blue whale spout not far away, a hopeful sign the whales will have a strong showing this summer season. We saw another spout about a mile or two away, they werent that close together, but they were in the vicinity of each other. Its likely they were together or the food source there was attracting them both.  While gray whales have a predictable migration, with most passing Southern California on their way back to Alaska after spending the winter in the warm waters off Mexico, its anyones guess when, or if, the blue behemoths will show up. Sometimes they appear in the hundreds, sometimes hardly at all. The possible hybrid was seen again Monday during a whale watching cruise aboard the catamaran Manutea with Captain Neal Radia.