Killer Whales - Bremer Canyon WA
A life highlight - witnessing 6 tonnes of orca catapulting itself through the air just metres away
As I start to look forward to another week out at the Bremer Canyon next month with the passionate, professional crew from Naturaliste Charters, I’ve been looking back at the images I’ve captured of the orcas over the last couple of years.
Also known as killer whales (although they’re the largest species of dolphin, and actually killers of whales), these apex predators are awe-inspiring. In fact, I’ve struggled to find the words to do justice to what I’ve seen and felt out there, witnessing large pods both hunting and playing. Consequently this blog post has been sitting, unshared, in my website’s Drafts folder for the past year!
Fortunately the marine biologists who are on board the boat every day do wonderful blog posts each evening detailing that day’s experiences. So I’ll share a few photos here, and encourage you to jump over to their blog (link here) to read all about what is going on off our south coast.
The Naturaliste Charters crew are passionate about the orcas, and love sharing their knowledge with the passengers on-board. Every day is different and special. There’s always a professional photographer on board, capturing not just the highlights for that day’s blog post, but also as many images as possible of individual orcas so they can be identified, from their dorsal fins, saddle and eye patches, for ongoing research purposes.
As one of those photographers, I relish the extra insights I get. Sitting at the dining table in the crew house each night, working on the day’s photos, I love listening to the conversations around the table of the events of the day, sharing my images, and enjoying at the amazing underwater Go-Pro footage others had captured as I photographed what was going on above the surface. Each day something new is learnt about these giants of the ocean.
Not only do you get to see killer whales up close and personal, as these inquisitive creatures often hang around next to the boat, there’s so much more to see out at the Bremer Canyon. I’ve photographed numerous pods of pilot whales (the Angry Sausages as skipper Dundee calls them!) creating “Commotion in the Ocean”; watched a mako shark buzzing a sunfish; been thrilled as a pod of dolphins accompanied our boat ; spied on sea lions sunbaking on offshore islands; snapped wandering albatross with their 3.5m wingspan as they’ve soared overhead; and seen great swirls of seabirds signalling the presence of orcas feasting on freshly caught prey in the distance. I’ve witnessed the power and spectacle of surges and predations. And I’ve been left open-mouthed and breathless, watching dozens of orcas breaching over and over, in every direction, as excitement levels shot off the scale amongst passengers and crew alike. A truly unforgettable experience.
Orcas can be individually identified by the eye and saddle patches, and dorsal fins
A pod of long finned pilot whales (the second largest species of dolphin). How cute is the calf!
The Naturaliste Charters vessel, Alison Maree, was specially built for conditions on the Southern Ocean
Orca delighting the passengers at the bow of the Naturaliste Charters vessel
When an orca appears midair in front of you all you can do is shoot from the hip and hope for the best!
Naturaliste Charters’ skipper, Dundee - his smile says it all
Pia, one very happy marine biologist
Bird swirls are usually an indicator of the presence of orcas and a predation
