We arrived in the Bremer Canyon to a sea of seabirds as they focused their attention on a particular section of the canyon and it wasn’t long before the black dorsals of Orca broke the surface. We could see the excitement from both Orca and birds as small strips of white were flying past us in the beaks of Flesh Footed Shearwater and enormous Albatross… the Orca were feeding! Looking carefully we could determine that the food source was most likely squid as a young calf surfaced close by with a small amount trailing from her mouth, it looked like the Orca were enjoying a big Saturday morning breakfast.
The pod separated after a big feed with the young calves and teenagers staying with the leftover squid while the adults began their next hunt. The calves enjoyed playing just off our bow for almost two hours as they shared food and socialised. The call must have been sent out by the adults as the calves stopped their play and buzzed past us at full speed, the march was on again and we were going with them! During the march down the Bremer Canyon we had an enormous male surface only two meters away and he was in a very boisterous mood with a few breaches, tail slaps and even a “dorsal” slap where he used his massive dorsal to hit the waters surface in a half barrel roll. The excitement levels were high amongst the pod as they raced under and around our vessel during their journey and just before we left them to continue a pod of over 50+ Pilot Whales arrived on the scene, the Bremer Canyon certainly is a perfect place to see Orca feeding and the entourage of seabirds and wildlife that follows them!
