Killer Whales in Western Australia gather in the largest known aggregation of Orca in the southern hemisphere in the waters off Bremer Bay. Today the sun was shining as we made our way to the sighting grounds and shortly after arriving our Marine Scientist Josh called out, “Orca out to the starboard side!”. All eyes moved to the right as we scanned carefully for the next resurfacing as a powerful exhalation erupted on our bow as Razor, Eddie, Mia and Fanscar all surfaced together in an early morning greeting. B-slice and Cheryl were also part of the mornings greetings as they calmly swam alongside us as the family mingled together and socialised. Shortly after the mornings catchup we could see that another familiar family pod had moved into The Patch as Blade, Cubs and Cubby moved towards us to say hello. It was interesting to observe as big male Chalky followed this pod carefully, perhaps investigating the females in Blades pod.
The family was in foraging mode as they focused to the west of The Patch before early in the afternoon finding themselves pushing back to the east. The family moved through the ocean smoothly, displaying great strength and power as their movement was efficient and streamlined. Echolocating takes time and the family continued to search, but it appeared that the waiting tactic was becoming most useful as they patiently monitored the hunting grounds and scanned for the next opportunity. The final family pod we had the pleasure of interacting with was beautiful Queen (aka Split Tip) and her tribe of excellent hunters who porpoised towards us in excitement as little Stormy launched through the swell towards us at full pace. Stormy continues to develop into a very confident and cheeky calf who loves nothing more than being involved in the heart of the activity. Queen, Wonks and Noosa gathered everyone together as they continued on for todays search of meal options and we wished them well for the afternoon ahead.
