03.03.2019
Another wild adventure in the Bremer Canyon today! As it always seems to be the way as soon as we think we have these Orca figured out they stay unpredictable, no surprises here as they are the apex predators and you don’t get to the top of the food chain by chance.
We moved through the hotspot with no sign of the orca, similar to the last three expeditions. No better conditions then today though to have a long tour of the multiple sub-canyons and canyon systems off the shelf of Australia here in the south west. As the topography deep below us changed we sighted multiple different species from the Toothed Whale family.
We began with the largest toothed whale, the Sperm Whale. Reaching up to 18m in length we observed two bachelors logging at the surface but they weren’t interested in us one bit! We then moved off into another part of the canyon system and found Pilot Whales! Another member of the toothed whale family, they are approximately 6m in length but make up for it with the numbers! A relaxed pod of 80 or so pilots were milling about with a few cheeky calves spy-hopping and splashing trying to grab our attention!
Next on the tour was the long battle against staying positive. Half way through the day and we hadn’t spied the orca yet…a squeal of excitement brought the energy back up as blow after blow were spied on the horizon! On approach we noticed the tightly formed pod of orca were sleeping! Coming up every seven minutes or so to breathe in unison! What a special sight! A large male orca also known as a bull was acting as security for the rest of the pod which included the familiar dorsals of Kidji and Holey.
Our tour then proceeded along the canyons and we found a boisterous lone sperm whale. All by itself we first noticed him because of the commotion it was making on the surface! Lots of splashing about however on approach he acted as if nothing had happened and was logging there rather quietly.
The last leg of our tour was the big run home and on the way we found active orca! They were moving along towards the hotspot playing in our wake as we passed. It was the pod from this morning they had awoken from their siesta and were now having a big fiesta!! With orca all around the vessel, there were also other pods in the vicinity all moving in an east direction with many close passes, eyeballing and mugging orca to finish off our Tour De Canyon!
