Orca calves play in Bremer Bay today as we cruised out to The Patch on the glossy calm waters of the Southern Ocean. Starting our search in The Patch we ventured to the east and observed muffled blows that caught our attention. The call went out that we had Sperm Whales just ahead as we ventured over to have a closer look at these magnificent creatures. It is always lovely spending time with our Sperm Whales as they are one of the most interesting species we see out here. A small bachelor pod of three Sperm Whales slowly patrolled the surface taking in plenty of oxygen before taking their next dive down to the depths to hunt for squid up to 2 hours at a time.
A very familiar sight today was the distinctive sideways Sunfish dorsal fin, we were seeing them everywhere on such a calm days. There were over 12 Sunfish all together on the hunt for spicy spaghetti more scientifically known as Physalia physalis or Bluebottles/Portuguese Man o’ War.
After spending some time with the hungry Sunfish we continued our grid search of The Patch towards the south. Tall blows and black, curved dorsal fins broke the surface with the Orca call going out we saw non other than members of Queen’s pod but with no sign of Queen we were soon to realise we had the young mums and calves playing together as Queen and the older females were on the forage. Gem and her calf Opal played with cheeky Samurai, Shadow, Stevie and Bubbles. It was really good to see all the young calves born in the last few years looking so healthy and full of life. Especially Samurai whose mother Shredder has a tough job watching out for this gorgeous and curious young orca.
Watching on in delight as Opal and Samurai chased each other around our vessel alongside Shadow, Stevie and Bubbles. All trying to see who can out swim who and practice Orca hunting behaviour, there was flukes and white bellies flying. You will see in one of the photos Samurai swimming sideways and looking up toward the camera near the bow with his little eye wide open. Samurai is fast becoming a favourite of our Pod Members and it will be a joy to watch him continue to grow and mature in the years ahead.
