Orca eye patch is an important feature that we use to identify and recognise the Orca of Bremer Bay as we met familiar faces today in The Patch. It was set to be a stealthy and busy day of foraging for the Orca as we arrived in the sighting grounds blows just ahead were observed as Cooee and Echo made their approach. Good morning greetings from these two are always special and a replica of yesterday morning as they came over to say hello before retuning back to focused foraging. It was the story of the day as they worked consistently and methodically throughout The Patch before moving out to the west for a little while. Cookie and her family were not far as they too joined in with the search to the west and it was lovely to see little Poppy and mum Rosemary also joining in for the journey.
It has been a fascinating season watching these Orca travel and work together with much success as well with Cookie and her family seeming very happy to have their company and support throughout the season. It was time to head back towards The Patch as the family regrouped before moving back to the east and covering ground efficiently. It is always a great opportunity on these days to collect good photo id images of the eye patches of each Orca we are working with as we can swim with the rhythm of the Orca and anticipate their next surfacing. Looking carefully you can observe a couple of older and new scars around the eye patch of Cooee which are a great example of how these scars create a unique appearance for each Orca in the population. Coupled with the shape of each eye patch it works just like a fingerprint and enables a fantastic way of identifying the many individuals that live in this very healthy Orca population in the waters just off Bremer Bay. It was a lovely day to be with the Orca who were ensuring their energy reserves collected from yesterday lasted as long as possible during their search for the next big meal for the family pod.
