Killer Whales of Australia were superb today as we enjoyed a morning of socialising, an unbelievable Beaked Whale escape before the afternoon erupted into surface activity. It was a beautiful morning in Bremer Bay as we departed the boat harbour and soon found ourselves amongst the Shearwaters tracking the Orca. It was fantastic to see Blackberry back in The Patch and he was making the most of his morning flirting and socialising with members of Queen’s family pod. All seemed completely focused on interacting with each other that incredibly a Beaked Whale surfaced just behind them and went unnoticed. Ambrose first sighted the Beaked Whale surfacing just off our stern as the Orca surfaced only a hundred meters ahead. A miracle moment for the Beaked Whale as he quickly dived and disappeared into the depths again leaving us all shocked, the Orca were so focused on socialising they had missed him!
Shortly afterwards they appeared to pickup on something, perhaps they could hear the Beaked Whale moving away as the family stopped socialising and began to stalk the area. Carefully diving and working the vicinity of the Beaked Whale sighting for the next 90 minutes they did their best to locate him. Settling into travel mode they moved out of the area for a while before suddenly changing course and increasing speed to a surge. Spectacular to watch as the family regrouped and began to breach, tail slap and head lunge with excitement. The calves now began to play as they wrestled just off our bow with one of the older females pretending to be the Beaked Whale as all the youngsters tried to hold her below the surface. Practicing these tactics is very important to the growth and development of the youngest pod members and they absolutely love the opportunity to have some fun and make some noise. A spectacular end to our wonderful day with the Killer Whales of Australia and a very lucky day for Mr Beaked Whale.
