There was something about this whale that seemed different.

It wasn’t a Bryde’s whale, identifiable because of the ridges on their heads. And it didn’t have the distinct white coloring near its lower right jaw like the fin whales.

Naturalist and photographer Kristin Campbell, aboard a Newport Coastal Adventure boat off Laguna Beach, was stumped. But with today’s technology, it wasn’t long before she was able to get confirmation the whale she was observing was a sei whale, rarely seen off the Southern California coast.

Alex Shaw was captaining the boat and discovered the whale hanging out with some dolphins. Campbell, using internet connection aboard the boat, was able to immediately shoot off images to the charter company’s owner, Ryan Lawler, who forwarded them to whale expert Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who in turn consulted scientists to make the confirmation.

All before Campbell even got back to the docks.

“At the speed of light here, whale science is happening,” Lawler said. “Just the fact that we were able to see it, and document it, is pretty cool.”

The sighting created a buzz in the whale-watching community. Lawler said the last sighting of a sei whale (pronounced like say) was in 2017. After comparing images of the two, based on different dorsal fins, it looks like they are two different whales.

“They are not commonly seen off of Southern California, there’s been very few documented sightings,” Lawler said. “It’s such a rare sighting and the fact that there’s been so few very documented off of Southern California is pretty notable. This sighting we made this morning really goes into the history books, as far as biologists are concerned.”

Sei whales can be found in subtropical, temperate and subpolar waters around the world, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, sei whales were targeted and greatly depleted by commercial hunting and whaling, with an estimated 300,000 animals killed for their meat and oil, the NOAA website reads.

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The sei whale – which have long, sleek bodies – is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, and as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Today, there are around 8,600 sei whales in the North Pacific, only about 20 percent of their original population estimate of 42,000 for this area.

Sei whales are usually observed alone, or in small groups of two to five animals. They are fast swimmers that can reach speeds of more than 34 mph, according to NOAA. An average sei whale eats about 2,000 pounds of food per day, a mix of krill, small fish or squid. The movement patterns of sei whales are not well known, but they are typically observed in deeper waters, far from the coastline.