Orca Matriarchs in the Patch as within moments of our arrival Cookie surfaced 20 meters ahead with her family pod. They were on the hunt and the stealthy movements of Cookie, El Notcho and Swirl focused in on an area close to the edge of the continental shelf. Cookie was not the only matriarch in town and it wasn’t long before Queen (aka Split Tip/Split Pin) and her family joined us. Moving towards a large oil slick, it was clear to see that an early morning hunt had been successful. The smell of oil on the surface was distinctive and due to the sheer size of the slick we determined it was highly likely to have been a Beaked Whale hunt. A short time later Flapper began to swim towards us and as we looked carefully we could see she was carrying something in her mouth.
It was large and had the appearance of a pinkish hue indicating further likely hood of the hunt being a marine mammal one rather than squid. The food was happily shared amongst the pod and we enjoyed travelling right alongside Queen and her large family. One of Queen’s closest friends soon arrived and it was fellow matriarch Noosa and her son Urkel. The two families joined together as Noosa and Urkel continued to hang out on the periphery. A large male, Urkel moved past us gracefully and showed off his impressive size as his mum Noosa came over for a closer inspection. A special day spent with three Orca families, hundreds of seabirds and gorgeous Sea Lion pups.
