One thing you can count on, whether wild or domestic, San Diego loves animal stories. Below are five of the top animal stories NBC 7 brought you in 2024 in chronological order. Click into the stories to read more.
Floating fin whale that washed up on San Diego's Pacific Beach provides 2nd life at sea
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In January 2024, researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration attached a satellite buoy tracker to the carcass of a fin whale that washed ashore in Pacific Beach. It was the first time the team used this technology to track a dead animal, and its data is giving researchers new insight into what is a relatively unknown movement pattern.
Pelicans flock to La Jolla Children's Pool by the hundreds
A whole lot of pelicans visited La Jolla in April 2024.
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Tammy Russell, a Ph.D. candidate with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said the pelicans likely came to the area to roost. She said they were feeding and resting before heading to their usual breeding locations around the Channel Islands. Russell said the pelicans would likely be there a while if there’s enough to eat.
“This is just fantastic,” beamed Jim Grant, who snapped the photo. “They're just so fantastic. They have so many features that they were created with that just are mind-boggling.”
Grant finds each bird fascinating. He’ll stand along the shore in La Jolla and Ocean Beach to take hundreds of pictures every day. Grant said he’s never taken a picture like the ones he took that Sunday in April at the La Jolla Children’s Pool.
Shark attacks swimmer in Del Mar, beaches to reopen Tuesday
During June 2024, a man was bitten by a shark in Del Mar and hospitalized, prompting Del Mar lifeguards to close beaches for swimming and surfing in the area for a short time.
The man was bitten in his torso, left arm and hand, which are significant injuries, but are non-life-threatening. He survived the incident. At the time, he was swimming in a group of about a dozen ocean swimmers who regularly meet to train in Del Mar.
‘We want it for humans only': San Diego group pushes to get sea lions out of La Jolla Cove
For decades, La Jolla Cove has been a popular attraction for tourists. Many enjoy the panoramic views off the coast of San Diego, while others enjoy the proximity to marine wildlife. However, for locals, the Cove has remained an epicenter of controversy surrounding the interactions between visitors and seals and sea lions.
In July 2024, some groups began calling for stronger solutions from local leaders, including one idea to get sea lions off the beach completely. Then, opposing groups fought against that.
‘Sea serpent' surprises snorkelers in La Jolla Cove
In August of 2024, a group of snorkelers, kayakers and paddleboarders discovered a rare 12-foot oarfish floating offshore of La Jolla Cove.
The specimen is so rare that only 19 oarfish, which are long, silvery, deep-sea dwellers, have been found along California's shore since 1901, according to an expert from UC San Diego.
The weird-looking oarfish is quite the sight to behold, able to grow dozens of feet in length and swim vertically.
They are also known as the "doomsday fish". Legend has it that the sea creature is a harbinger of earthquakes and other natural disasters — "although no correlation has been proven," says Scripps — which made the timing of its discovery interesting, considering that there was quake with a magnitude of 4.4 centered near the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles just days before its discovery. That temblor came on the heels of a 5.2-magnitude earthquake on Aug. 6, also in Southern California.
In November of 2024, a second oarfish washed up in Encinitas, marking two rare occurrences during one year on San Diego County's shores.
