West Coast Eagles Premiership players joined Western Australia’s Premier Whale Watch company today as we journeyed to the West Coast Orcas in the Bremer Canyon. Greeting us at the continental shelf was a super pod of 1,000+ Offshore Bottlenose Dolphins who completely surrounded our vessel and enjoyed some social interaction. Bow riding right under our feet we watched their graceful movement as they travelled with speed, making it look easy as they continued to pull away from the vessel and race each other. Arriving in the canyon all eyes were searching carefully and it wasn’t long until the enormous dorsal fin of a large male Orca broke the surface up ahead. Surfacing alongside we recognised the familiar face of El Notcho, Cookie and her calf Oreo along with the rest of the family pod as they began to surge east. Joining with them we could feel the energy increase as El Notcho began to porpoise in front of the girls and pull away. A distance later they then resumed to relaxed movement as they continued to track east and a few cheeky surfacing’s right next to us as they had a good look at everyone looking back at them. The surge began once again and the entire pod made a sharp left turn and began to surge directly towards us at speed, almost porpoising onto our bow! A cheeky NZ Fur Seal and magnificent Wandering Albatross were further highlights to another extraordinary day with the West Coast Orcas and as we visited Glasse Island a large White Bellied Sea Eagle peered down at us, seeming to know that fellow Eagles were in town. A pleasure to have Jeremy McGovern, Chris Masten and Will Schofield onboard (a Happy belated Birthday to Schoey!).
