Beaked Whale Hunt in Bremer Bay

05.04.22

After a quiet couple of days in Bremer, I was itching to see some Killer Whales again. With two days of no action, surely this was the "calm" before the storm?

Much to my relief, two large male dorsal fins greeted us when we reached the canyon, Nibbles and Digby. Once again, however, the whales were feeding. Fish leapt out ahead and once again the Orca were not particularly interested in us.

After a while, Nibbles the large male seemed to suddenly become interested in us, he came very close to the boat and seemed to be leading us away from the pod. It's not abnormal for Orcas to use "decoys" and we were more than happy to follow the impressive Nibbles.

Nibbles kept us distracted and soon we had followed him away completely from the two pods that had been nearby. A great way to end the day or so we thought as we told passengers we would be heading back. As we swung around, Nibbles suddenly burst from the water in an aggressive surge. As if on cue the rest of the pod appeared ahead in the distance. We all looked at each other excitedly-the orca were chasing something-a predation was about to unfold. No way were we heading back now. We followed Nibbles as he and other Orcas surged ahead and alongside us.

The orca led us to a very fatigued and scarred Cuvivers Beaked whale. The poor old boy was exhausted, floating at the surface as the orca surrounded him like wolves. The kill was efficient, gory, amazing and sad. Orcas from all different pods came in together to finish off the whale and share a meal. Soon there was nothing left of the Beaked Whale but scraps and scrabbling birds.

We stayed for some time after the kill, watching the whales as they continued to swim close by. Everyone was in awe of what we had just witnessed. An amazing, once in a lifetime experience for sure!