Today we observed over fifty Orca as two large family pods foraged in The Patch with a successful squid kill in the early afternoon. Our first interaction was shortly after arriving in The Patch as Lucky and her family pod surfaced to say hello. It was wonderful to see her with that distinctive missing dorsal fin and her large family pod. All were looking well with the boys having all put on a great deal of muscle and dorsal fin size, looking very impressive! Lucky looked fantastic as well with good body condition and as usual was directing pod members to where they needed to be while the family foraged throughout the morning. It was fantastic to see the disciplined FLOT lines as they all spread out and swam side by side while sweeping through the hunting grounds.
It was a busy morning of foraging for them all before a commotion began and the whole family took off in a high pace surge. Moving quickly through the swell they sent white water flying as they closed in on another pod just ahead of them, it was Queen! No surprises as she had once again successfully secured the meal before anyone else as her family began to share out the squid to other pod members while a few of the males from Lucky’s pod meandered over to socialise with some of Queen’s family. How wonderful to see her again looking well and all of her family excited to see us as they raced over to greet everyone onboard while showing off their meal. Feasting continued as the little ones played with a long tentacle that dangled from the mouth of Stevie as she lifted right up next to us in a beautiful, cheeky spy hop. Fantastic to see the Orca have some success today and wonderful to catchup with two of the largest family pods in this population, we cant wait for tomorrow!
