Killer Whales of Bremer Bay gather every season as the specialist Giant Squid and Beaked Whale hunters gather with other family pods. Striped Dolphins were the first to make a dramatic appearance this morning as they arrived in style with white water flying and porpoising on full display. A fun pod of 50-80 individuals whizzed past quickly as we joined with them and could see the high energy from the pod members.Travelling vast distances is a normal part of day to day life for the Striped Dolphins as they target pelagic fish and squid species. The Stripies launched and showed off their beautiful markings and elegant bodies all while making travelling at high speeds in a marine environment look easy. Wishing them well for their day ahead our attention now turned to the Striped Dolphins much larger cousins, the Orca! A beautiful day to be looking as the weather had settled dramatically from yesterday and with the wind and swell easing all eyes onboard scanned carefully for the Killer Whales of Bremer Bay.
No wonder the Striped Dolphins were in such a hurry as shortly after leaving them we sighted slinky dorsal fins as members of Queens family pod surfaced together. Although the Bremer Bay Orca families have not yet been observed hunting smaller dolphin species in the Bremer Canyons there have been reports off the coastline of Albany. The smaller cousins of the Orca were not hanging around to find out as they peeled well away from the Orca hunting grounds. It was clear that the Orca were busy today as Queens large family were spread over a huge distance as they meandered back towards The Patch. Joining with Shredder we watched on to see the interesting pod dynamics unfold as without matriarch Queen close by it was up to her daughters to plan out their own day of foraging. Implementing the tactics they have learnt from Queen the girls worked continuously throughout the day in search of their favourite meal of Squid or Beaked Whale. The rain clouds approached and as they settled into forage mode we wished them well and hoped that they would be successful in finding a big dinner, reward for all their efforts.
