Whale Watchers Capture Stunning Video of Monster Blue Whale

A whale watching expedition sailing off the coast of Laguna Beach, CA earlier this week was fortunate enough to witness the very first blue whale sighting of the season. And the group captured photos and video of the massive creature.

According to a Facebook post from the Dana Wharf Whale Watch, the sighting occurred about six miles off the coast of Laguna Beach on April 28 around 10:30 a.m., during an eight-hour whale watching adventure. The vessel's captain, Todd Mansur estimates that the blue whale was a male approximately 60 feet in length.

"We were watching this whale feeding for several cycles when all of a sudden it began porpoising traveling from Laguna Main Beach to just north of the Dana Point Headlands at about 14 knots!" Mansur said in the post, adding: "Just WOW!"

The group also caught footage of the majestic beast breaching from the water. The business noted that last year, the first blue whale of the season wasn't spotted until May 7, so this year's sighting comes more than a week ahead of schedule.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), blue whales are the largest animals ever to live on our planet, and can weight up to 330,000 pounds and grow to about 110 feet in length. In fact, they're so big that the animals are far larger than any dinosaur that has ever roamed the earth.

But despite their massive size, blue whales feed almost exclusively on tiny krill, which they strain from the ocean water through their baleen plates, flat flexible plates that hang from their upper jaw and work similar to a sieve. Some of the largest blue whales consume up to six tons of krill per day.

Unfortunately, the global population of blue whales was significantly depleted by commercial whaling activities in the early 1900s, but they are making a comeback. The mammals are currently protected under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the biggest threats facing them today are from vessel strikes and entanglements in fishing gear.