Orca Canyon Hunters were covert, discreet and in total camouflage today as we approached The Patch. The slightest of glints from the sun revealed their position and then they were gone again for 10 minutes before surging back to our vessel to bid us good morning and away again as we were led by the Queen of the Canyons as she moved out into much deeper water as we ventured toward the heads of Hood and Henry Canyons.
At one stage we were left to babysit young Grace whilst the adults echolocated and foraged amongst the deeper water in search of prey. There was a very low energy, quiet hunting as we watched Queens Pod move very slowly but deliberately through the Canyons until there was a call out in The Patch and the surge was on, off we went back up the hill into the shallower water (1000m) as one of the scouts had obviously found something but very little surface slicks were located which showed signs of little to no feeding.
Orca’s in the northern hemisphere are witnessed with large amounts of space between Pod members, this is a sign of little prey in the area and a wider ‘net’ is thrown by the Orca, that was the case today as there was plenty of room between Pod Members before they would regroup very 45 minutes to ‘swap notes’.
Last night’s full moon also affects hunting and the Orca appeared to have had a big night whereby bait inversions will cover the approach of the Orca on the squid which are feeding on the bait fish, tuna and other fish. There was also two sightings of sharks today which leads to the environment having quite a big night and a slower day for the Orca hunting in the Canyons.
