How Do Orca Hunt Beaked Whale? During each tour we have the opportunity to observe the Orca going about their daily activities including foraging. Today we were excited to see Kidji within moments of arriving in The Patch as she travelled with members of her family pod who were spread far and wide. Focused movements saw them travelling east then west as they worked an envelope of area with determination and it was clear they were tracking someone important. Small oil slicks were observed which means someone has captured something and it wasn’t the Orca today. The likely suspect was a nearby Beaked Whale who was diligently working the depths below as the Orca tracked the individual. A long downtime from the Beaked Whale means the Orca can sometimes be tracking the individual for one to two hours prior to it surfacing.
Big male Hookfin was also helping out today along with Chalky as they worked together with the family pod. A few times today there was a short rest and regroup as they gathered around the Steep Point. Cubs and Cubby were both excitable as they approached us at midships before zooming underneath and popping back up on the other side. The entire family followed as we drifted with them while they took their time to move past us with powerful exhalations. The day was a long time of searching and that is a big process of how Orca hunt Beaked Whale with much patience and persistence required from these apex predators. The search envelope had shrunk to a small section that they had now honed in on and after a short rest were now back to focusing in on search and listen dives. Wishing them well we could clearly see today just how hard the Orca need to work for each and every meal they succeed in finding.
