Witness The Hunt as the oceans apex predators successfully hunted a Beaked Whale today in dramatic scenes in the waters off Bremer Bay. The morning began with playtime as within moments of arriving in The Patch young calves Bubbles and Samurai along with babysitter Wasco raced over to our bow for morning greetings. The calves continued playtime under and around us throughout the morning as Queen, Noosa and Alki along with their pod members relaxed. Shearwaters and Albatross squabbled over a scrap of squid left floating on the waters surface as they tried to tear it into smaller pieces. Hookfin came in on our stern and this cheeky male once again stole the show by swimming right up to us for a closer investigation before joining back with Chalky who was now swimming with Blade and his family pod.
The energy changed dramatically as they began to surge and straight away we knew that after all that hard work foraging throughout the day they were now being rewarded. A Beaked Whale surfaced amongst dozens of Orca who had now congregated and surrounded the individual who sadly had little chance of evading these apex predators. All of the Orca had now arrived and the move was made to quickly push the Beaked Whale below the surface as the tinge of blood and a cloud of bubbles rising up to the surface meant it was a very quick end for the poor Beaked Whale. The Orca celebrated and raced past us with their morsel of food each as they showed off their meal and revelled in the successful hunt they had completed and we had just witnessed. The birds flooded the area and everyone received a meal as nothing went to waste. It is always a bittersweet moment to lose a Beaked Whale and to then see the resulting importance of the energy source now provided to so many others.
