Before we even left the dock we were greeted by a friendly Australia Sea Lion blowing bubbles, resting and playing with the water as we departed, a common sight here in Bremer Bay.
Another special sight today was on the way out to the Bremer Sub-Basin, as we were accompanied by a pod of common dolphins riding our vessel’s wake and porpoising out of the water!
The real action occurred when orca from approximately 3 pods began surging past us, however it looked to be a false alarm as the orca turned up empty handed not long after!
Over the course of the day we came upon what looked to be a bachelor pod made up of Adult and sub-adult males who were showing signs of adolescence as their dorsal fins were beginning to ‘sprout’ up. Full grown adult males have a very tall dorsal fin reaching a maximum of 1.8m which starts growing as they mature around 15 years of age and is easily identifiable compared to the falcate fin of females and juvenile males. Male orca will typically live for 60 years whereas females average 80 years!
We also spied a large group of orca made up of all ages including a very small calf still with an orange tinge to its body! Some familiar fins made up this pod including split tip and lucky, who were identified and catalogued in our very first season, 5 years ago!! This large pod was spotted multiple times today, starting with the surge earlier and finishing the day off nicely by giving us our last glimpse of orca for the day and leaving a beautiful image for the passengers to remember their trip by!
What a pleasant day to be out on the water, we were even greeted by two sunfish, one being itsy bitsy only 1m from tip to tip! A stark comparison to other sunfish we have seen this season!
We also had a VERY special international visitor today, an adult Sabine’s Gull! The northern hemisphere bird was a rare sight and is just another indication of how diverse the animals are in this region and reminds us that we never know what each new day will bring!
