Surfing and Spermies!

It was just like clockwork today, sighting Nibbles pod as soon as we hit the hotspot! We also had a visiting vessel today (the True North) who joined us on the orca hunt! A lovely example of comradery in the Canyon! The pod displayed short and sporadic surface times  accompanied by slick after slick , making it easy to discern the pods behaviour…kill kill kill! The oil slicks were small and far spread suggesting the predations were likely small pelagic fish. The long breath holds and lack of remains further signifies that the orca were diving deeper than their usual sub-surface depths for today’s lunch! After hours of observing similar feeding behaviour the orca had a break to come and play with the boat! The large swell made for a great game as these black and white bullets surfed through the waves towards us at high speed! Over and over the orca would shoot past us, almost too quickly to capture on camera (unless you’re Machi, our gun photographer!) before darting back under the hull to have another turn! The customers used this as a game too, riding the swell like a roller coaster, trying to spot the orca before the crew! As seems to happen EVERY day when we decide to turn the boat for home….something GREAT happened! A large splash! As we approached we could only make assumptions of what in fact caught our eye! Minutes passed and everyone on board scanned the area, 12 O’CLOCK!!!! SPERM WHALE…TWO SPERM WHALES….SIX SPERM WHALES…this repeated until we had over 20 sperm whales around the boat. FUN FACT: Spermaceti is a liquid mixture atop of the sperm whales skull which is used to increase echolocation as well as buoyancy! What an incredible adaptation to hone in on prey and assist their deep dives (over 2km!!!!). The prehistoric creatures punched through the swell with ease as they sipped at the air. Tail slaps from the middle part of the pod started a chain reaction of energetic surface action! Breach, slap and breach again!!!! For over 30 minutes we were surrounded by sperm…whales!!! All I can say is after the last two days…..what on earth with happen tomorrow!