Bremer Bay Beaked Whale were sighted today in a very special encounter as the whole family pod surfaced together and we had the opportunity of spending time with one of the most rarely sighted species of cetacean on the planet. Beaked Whales are mysterious creatures that live their lives in the deep water where they hunt for squid and fish. Elusive and evasive the Bremer Bay Beaked Whale are always on the lookout for their number one predator, the Orca. It is a dangerous situation if the Orca find the Beaked Whale as they have the ability to trap them close to the surface and prevent them from evasively diving into deeper water. The reason why Orca don’t want the Beaked Whale diving is because of their remarkable dive time which has been recorded at nearly four hours! The longest breath hold of any mammal on record and the deepest dive of any mammal on record belongs to the Beaked Whale species.
Today we observed slinky dorsal fins moving quickly and as we approached were excited to observe between 4-6 individuals swimming together. A wonderful opportunity to spend some time with Beaked Whales without the Orca around to observe their behaviour and pod dynamics. Moving fast they seemed to be on a mission but would slow during surfacing which gave us a great opportunity to capture some id images. It appeared they were mostly females and there was also a younger individual but no mature males travelling with the pod that we could identify. The verdict was Strap-toothed Beaked Whales from the images captured and it was wonderful to spend some time with them today. The Orca went wondering today and although we searched far and wide it appeared that the Beaked Whales were safe to continue foraging. The Orca were away from The Patch and surrounding areas today but as the usual pattern goes they look set to return tomorrow and we hope this little Beaked Whale family are a long way from The Patch by then.
