Bremer Orca families were on the hunt today as we spent our day with five different Orca family pods. Our first interaction was with the wonderful Queen and her family as they cruised on through The Patch and little Stormy made sure that she came over and said good morning to everyone. Foraging continued as Alki and her family arrived shortly after, it was with much excitement we could confirm that Grace is alive and healthy, successfully making it through her first year of life! Always a challenging time for young Orca is the first 12 months and we anticipate the moment of re-sighting each season when looking for last years calves. The third family pod to arrive was just up ahead as the enormous and unmistakable dorsal fin of Blackberry appeared.
A truely enormous male, he surfaced right on our bow with the entire family alongside as they curiously approached us. Elvis and Cortez also cruised past as we had these three, mature males showing off their two meter high dorsal fins to all onboard. We stayed with this special pod for a while until we noticed them regroup and start to leave The Patch and as we looked up we could see why, El Notcho was back in town! The whole family was surging towards us, cutting through the swell as they appeared more like torpedoes than Orca flying towards and then underneath our bow. The excitement continued as much to our surprise the beautiful B-Slice and his family appeared and came over to great us for the first time this season. A wonderfully busy day with the Bremer Orca families and foraging fun as the sunshine was out in the waters off Bremer Bay.
