CONFIRMED NEW CALF!

The long weekend came with a LONG wait! However persistence and patience pays off in the canyon! The sky was grey and the swell was rolling! We had nearly given up hope when customers on the bow started slowly pointing and looking at each other with equal amounts doubt and excitement…one fin…two fins…FINS EVERYWHERE!!! The clouds dissipated and the ocean glowed with a deep blue. The orca changed course and headed straight toward the vessel! At first glance we noticed two mothers and their calves amongst the pod. As the orca approached we soon discovered that the mother was RAZOR!!!! Five days ago she was sighted with a calf but we weren’t able to discern whether it was hers but today proved that razor is the happy new mother to a TINY neonate!!! The beautiful little orange new born still had foetal folds and a tiny limp dorsal fin!!! The orange colouration is due to the orca not yet forming the blubber around its body so the blood vessels and capillaries are so close to the surface, hence the orange tinge! The other calves orange colouration had started to fade quite significantly suggesting it was around 6 months of age. This is also when the calves are weaned off mums milk and start to incorporate meat into their diet! Today wasn’t a day of feasting though as the orca cruised along our port side in a line metres from the bow! At one stage we had Nibbles pod at the bow and Kodjas pod at our stern providing endless entertainment for our customers! Razor was so comfortable with her new born, bringing the calf within close proximity of us providing some AMAZING images! On our search we headed far south towards “Dundee’s Spot” (our potential new hotspot) but wouldn’t quite make it today so on our voyage back to the hotspot we came across the orca in an area we had NEVER seen them before!!! Every day is bringing new questions, throwing spanners in the works and tweaks our current theories!!! The more we learn, the more we realise we don’t know. It is so exciting working out here and being a part of something that is only going to get bigger, whilst also watching our customers witness these magnificent creatures for the first time EVERY day!