Three from three!
Today was our third day in a row this week that we have had encounters of epic proportions!
We were greeted at the canyon this morning by a rather boisterous young orca, breaching not once, not twice, but 6 times! Gobsmacked passengers and crew were cheering the little tacker on and we knew we were in for another special day.
A bit of Deja-Vu occurred next as the orca sprouters from Tuesday were back and VERY FRISKY! Two unidentified sub-adult males and B-Slice, more affectionately known as Nibbles, moved over to us and were engaging in sexual activity just metres from the boat which meant we could spy with our underwater cameras without interfering the male on male action. Relaxed behaviour of this nature is indicative of communication or …practice… rather than dominance.
This encounter resulted in an electric energy moving throughout the boat as we may have just captured extremely rare footage, particularly never before captured on video in the Bremer Canyon. We will leave out the rest of the descriptive details but the screenshot below may shine light on the rather exciting and very saucy encounter.
As with the previous two expeditions out to the Canyon the 10 or so orca were, at most, 200 metres from the vessel and spent HOURS showing off by rolling, tail slapping and waving their pectoral fins. These cheeky orcas were sharking around the boat from stern to bow ensuring every single passenger had a very personal encounter.
As if this wasn’t enough for one day we bumped into a humungous group of Long-Finned Pilot Whales with many tiny little bullet like calves! These mammals were very relaxed in the company of our idling vessel and allowed us to have a long close look at these chatty whales.
Our day was wrapped up by Nibbles and the rest of the pod from this morning guiding us back towards home making it three from three amazing days this week!
Another amazing and unforgettable day out in the Bremer Canyon and we cannot wait to do it all again tomorrow!
