Doppelgängers!!!

With our free return customers from yesterday’s no orca tour it was easy to say anticipation was high all the way out to the canyon! As we dropped over the shelf every minute felt like an hour! With no sign of orca at the hotspot we headed west, moments later the call we had all been waiting for came over the two way…ORCAAAAA! We’d sighted what seemed to be two pods, one on our port, one on our starboard! Customers cheered as a LARGE, erect dorsal fin broke the surface, cutting through it like butter, soon followed by two adult females, all of which were unrecognisable to the crew!!! The male was so unique, a notch at the base and a kink on the trailing edge of his dorsal. The pod to our starboard was much further away but the pod in close proximity was leading us straight toward them! The new group were cruising at the surface, showing clear signs of resting or sleeping behaviour. Each time they submerged they stayed just below the surface, never lifting their peduncle or leaving traces of imbedded footprints, both of which are clear indications of diving deep. As we approached the other pod we started to recognise some of the individuals! In particular, three members of this group closely resembling some of our catalogued animals dorsal fins! However, as we had a closer inspection it wasn’t in fact Razor, Flapper or our bull Leonardo as there were slight differences in their eyepatches, hence we now have doppelgängers in the Canyon!! The majority of this pod were seen only two days prior for the first time, right amidst a hunt! The calves were also extremely playful and inquisitive with the vessel, showing no signs of threat or intimidation, even around a new boat! As we approached the hotspot on our way home the conditions were perfect to drop the new rigged up camera, so for the second time we deployed it to the bottom at 1000m deep!!! It was another successful mission, retrieving the camera in one piece! Our customers were lucky to feast their eyes on the suspenseful footage on our way back to the harbour…we shall say no more….! Until tomorrow, from the deep!