The grey skies painted a very ominous feeling this morning, and for a very good reason! An oil slick caught our eye in an instant. A successful orca predation before 10 am! The glistening liquid dispersed for at LEAST half a mile! Four pods were scattered amidst the oily remains and dark blood ridden waters.
By the time we arrived, the carnage had ceased, the remanence was gone and only the slick remained. The potent organic smell lingered in our nostrils. It wasn’t long before the pods had started to separate with their pieces of what must’ve been a substantial kill!
The swell was pumping, so much so that the orcas were sharking, their dorsal fins slicing through the surface as they surfed the waves toward us! We’d NEVER seen so many orcas in one wave! At LEAST 6-7 orcas from split-tips pod roared in toward our beam, under the vessel and surged out the other side!
We had pilot whales dotted between the two pods of orcas, all of which were surging in the same direction. To the untrained eye, you could barely tell between the two species from the immense amount of white water that was protruding of their faces! It almost looked as if the orcas were racing the pilot whales in a sprint!
Throughout the entire day, we had different pods moving through the area, chopping and changing between pods. The juveniles were in top form, blade barrel rolling down the waves toward the bow was a highlight! The youngsters clearly loved playing in the swell, every so often they’d launch their entire floppy bodies out of the water for all to see! Our cheers just egged the calves on more! Baby orca heads rose out the surface to check us out before they darted back under the bow! This activity went on all afternoon!
We’re not too sure how much longer we will be operating with everything that is going on at the moment so we really are cherishing every moment we get with these incredible animals!
More incredible animals in our Augusta Whale Watching Adventures. Book your tickets now!
