Bremer Canyon Beaked Whales surprised us today along with our much loved Pilot Whales, a beautiful Giant Manta Ray and of course the magnificent Orca. It was a stunning day, big blue sky and calm sea as we made our way to the sighting grounds and welcoming us was the beautiful Pilot Whales. Dozens of individuals gathered around us excitedly as they seemed to be enjoying their morning together in The Patch and it was great to spend some time with them all. Foraging on fish and squid in the area, these Pilot Whales will benefit from the feeding grounds just as the Orca do and we sometimes wonder if the Pilot Whales chase the Orca to try and claim this territory as their own. It is unlikely though as although the Bremer Bay Orca are not territorial, their presence in the hunting grounds is always noticed amongst the other species and well respected.
Our next sighting was a lovely surprise, a very hungry Giant Manta Ray was feeding just below the surface on what was likely a large gathering of zooplankton. It is rare to sight these ocean wanderers as they travel such vast distances but the nutrient rich upwelling waters of the Bremer Canyons provide a good food source for these visitors especially during the summer months. Just after our time with the Giant Manta Ray we sighted four slinky rostrums break the surface, it was a pod of Beaked Whales! How exciting to see them travelling safely away from the Orca for once and we could see that these were Strap-toothed Beaked Whales, four beautiful individuals peacefully surfacing alongside each other.
A special sighting, one of the most difficult marine mammal species on the planet to find are Beaked Whales so having the chance to spend time with them is always treasured. Continuing our search we soon had a very familiar face heading straight towards us, it was El Notcho! The whole family was cruising back towards The Patch and although wonderful to travel with the Orca, we were concerned for our Beaked Whale friends. Cookie got the family into focus mode and as they scanned the area we held our breath wondering if the Beaked Whales had already left the area or if they would be found. Thankfully for the Strap-toothed Beaked Whales the Orca did not find them and Cookie directed her family pod to move back out to deeper waters. It was social time now as they all came over for some curious interactions as we travelled together with these apex predators happily enjoying what was such a special day out in the waters of the Bremer Canyons.
