There was a stampede on the horizon in the Bremer Canyon today as we arrived on a beautiful morning after departing Bremer Bay. The white water of moving bodies could be seen ahead as over 200 Long Finned Pilot Whales and a few Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins cruised past. Approaching our vessel to investigate we could see their beautiful markings and two brand new calves who had only recently been born. We continued the search for Orca and it was yet another stampede of Pilot Whales and energy that attracted our attention and sure enough, there were the Orca!
The Orca seemed very pleased to meet us as they came over and we could see that this was one of the familiar families known in the Bremer Canyon. They had been following us for a little while as they surfaced just off our stern and not far from the Pilot Whales. We often sight this behaviour with other species such as Humpbacks who will use our sound footprint to sneak up on others, and in this case the Orca were making a stealthy approach towards the Pilots.
Moving into the area again they appeared to be giving the Pilot Whales a move along before returning back into their marching formation. After making our sighting prior to lunch we enjoyed watching them throughout the afternoon and studying their movement and behaviour. Upon our return we could see along the beach our lovely Pearl, the Australian Sea Lion and she was enjoying her evening dinner of fish and even decided to turn it into a flying fish at one stage!
