Whales

What we know

Whales are in GTA 6's sea. Rockstar told Game Informer that whales swim in Leonida's waters with sharks, rays, turtles and jellyfish, each with "distinct movement behavior", and that you can come across them while scuba diving (IGN, VICE). Rockstar has not said which whales, and none has appeared in a trailer yet.

Their smaller cousins have. IGN noticed dolphins playing in the distance as Jason dives off a jetty in the Extended Look, and dolphins are on IGN's list of animals seen so far.

Which whales visit real Florida

The whale most tied to Florida is the North Atlantic right whale, one of the rarest large whales alive. NOAA Fisheries says about 380 remain, and that the coastal waters from North Carolina to Florida are the only place they are known to regularly give birth. In the 2025 to 2026 season researchers counted 23 calves, the most in 17 years, several of them within a mile of Florida beaches such as Flagler, Crescent and South Daytona.

The timing is a neat coincidence. NOAA says right whale calving season runs from mid-November to mid-April, and GTA 6 launches on November 19.

Question	What we know
Whales in GTA 6?	Yes, Rockstar named them (via Game Informer)
Which species?	Not stated
Where you meet them	While scuba diving, per Rockstar
Dolphins?	Seen in the Extended Look (IGN)
Seasonal visits?	Unknown

Our take: a whale is the big "did you see that" moment of a dive, and Rockstar mentioning them at all suggests it built one worth chasing. Expect them in deep, open water well off the coast rather than in bays, and treat any sighting as rare until launch shows otherwise. We'd look from a boat or a jet ski first, since you can cover more sea on the surface than underwater. Whether Rockstar models a right whale specifically, or picks better-known whales for the spectacle, is a fair open question; a Florida-faithful choice would be the right whale.

What to watch for at launch

• Which whale species are in the game, and whether they breach at the surface.
• Whether whales are rare, or have set areas like real feeding and calving grounds.
• Whether hitting one with a boat has any consequence.