Orca family life is beautiful to watch and today it was all about social time as we were surrounded by Queen and Lucy’s family members in a very playful mood. The winds had eased and swell was decreasing after a few days of wild weather, it was great to be back out on the water again after a short break while the winds moved through over the weekend. Arriving in The Patch the call was made by Ambrose for Orca straight ahead and sure enough there they all were. Queen and her family had spread out over a large area and were very playful as they raced towards us for morning greetings and fun. Noosabu was extremely excitable as she wiggled and rolled all over Tarni before having a feed of milk with that moment captured by Arry. A young Orca calf will feed a dozen or so times every hour for short intervals of ten seconds or so leading to many yummy meals consumed over a full day. The whole family was playful as they surfed with us to the west and enjoyed plenty of bow and wake riding as they went, it seemed they had fed recently with an older oil slick being left behind them indicating a possible meal had been consumed.
Cheryl and her family soon joined as all cruised together with unique social interactions being observed amongst different individuals from each family pod. Two very special interactions were unfolding between Wonks and Giovanni and only a short distance away B-Slice and Deano were socialising in the same way as they cruised together. It was a boys day out for them as all of the girls stayed together while the four big boys of each family enjoyed some time to hang out and enjoy each others company. Moving into the baleen whale migration season it is important for these family pods to join forces and begin patrolling the hunting grounds together. Securing larger prey requires teamwork and the family pods who work together are better able to target larger baleen whales and make a success of the hunt. Orca family life is everything to them as not only do they need each other to find food but the support and affection between pod members is noticeable throughout each of our journeys with them in the Bremer sighting grounds. Also noticeable is the friendship and fun they enjoy when socialising with other family pods they are closely associated with as we observed today and it was a very enjoyable day for all observing Orca family life.
