Orcas and Southern Right whales have been sighted in Tasmania last week.
I can hardly describe how excited we have been, when we sighted the pod of orcas off Waterfall Bay last week. We’ve noticed a lot of feeding activities the weeks before with Australian Fur Seals and Common Dolphins rounding up schools of fish. Our highlight so far was to see some Southern Bluefin Tuna appear out of the blue and swoosh past on their hunting mission. These fish can swim as fast as 70km/hour.
On this particular day, all the fishing boats have already left the area and it was thought that the fish were gone. 15 minutes before sunset a cluster of albatrosses caught our eye, followed by 2 distinct blows. We went to investigate and spotted the pod of orcas. One of these amazing hunters managed to catch a tuna and brought it up to the surface.
Orcas are extremely intelligent creatures. They hunt in groups and use a technique called ‘endurance-exhaustion method’ to catch fast swimming fish like tuna. Here in Tasmania, we are very blessed that we get to see these beautiful animals wild and free. The identification process is still in progress. We don’t have the final confirmation yet, but it might be a new pod.
To top off the excitement of our orca encounter, we got told that Southern Right Whales have already been sighted off Tasman Peninsula. It seems like the whale migration season has started early this year. Looking forward to more whale sightings soon and to share our photos on the net.
Love the oceans! xx