Killer Whales – Page 4 – Syndication Server

Orcas stage hunting clinic in cove, thrilling onlookers

People on a loading dock in Haines, Alaska, watched in amazement Friday as five orcas methodically hunted a Dall’s porpoise that had become separated from its pod.

(Warning: The accompanying footage does not contain a happy ending for the porpoise.)

“I’ve lived in Alaska for 13 years, guiding for 8,” Meghan Condon, who captured the footage, stated on Facebook. “This was the best wildlife show I have ever seen. A pod of orcas in Haines, AK teaching their young how to hunt a Dall’s porpoise.”

The scene played out almost directly below Condon, a tour guide, and others on the Haines Packing Co. dock in Letnikof Cove. Viewers will note that the orcas, employing teamwork, easily thwarted attempts by the exhausted porpoise to escape.

At two minutes one of the orcas flips the porpoise into the air, then emerges with the porpoise in its mouth, and that’s the last time the smaller mammal is seen.

Orca sends Dall’s porpoise airborne. Photo: Megan Condon

Condon did not see evidence that the porpoise was consumed but transient orcas, or killer whales, prey almost exclusively on marine mammals, including Dall’s porpoise.

This foray, like many involving orca family groups, involved teaching moments for the younger orcas.

Condon told For The Win Outdoors that before she started documenting the hunt the porpoise had already been separated from its pod and fled onto the beach. An adult orca and calf remained just beyond the shore, waiting.

Orcas lurk beneath Dall’s porpoise. Photo: Meghan Condon

“It was flopping on the beach for 15 minutes or so,” Condon said. “Once it got free it floated for a few minutes. Then when it tried to swim for it, the adult injured it, then corralled it so the calf could have a go. After about 10 minutes, three more orca showed up and then it was over pretty quick.”

Condon said at least six Dall’s porpoise were feeding on smelt or herring when the orcas arrived.

Breaching orca soaks boaters with perfectly timed cannonball

Video footage captured Tuesday off Chile shows a large orca breaching almost clear of the water just yards from boaters and drenching them upon splashdown.

An orca cannonball, masterfully executed.

The footage was captured in the Gulf of Corcovado, which separates Chile’s mainland from Chiloe Island. About midway through the 25-second clip the orca launches its massive body and appears to intentionally splash the crew.

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The clip was uploaded to Facebook by Club de Emergencies Decima Region. A spokesman told For The Win Outdoors that the footage was passed along by somebody else and he could not reveal details other than the date and location.

Astonished paddlers suddenly amid orca ‘feeding frenzy’

A group of paddlers off La Paz, Mexico, recently found themselves surrounded by orcas as the mammals feasted on schooling mobula rays.

“The whole thing was absolutely powerful, magical, and oh so lucky,” Sergio Garcia, owner of Baja SUP, told For The Win Outdoors. “We felt grateful to have been there at exactly the right moment and place to share that experience.”

Garcia, 39, on Thursday provided a summary of the late January encounter involving at least five Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales, or orcas.

He was on SUP board and two others, Terri Lynn and Rene Potvin, were on kayaks. Lynn and Potvin had been freediving and spearfishing from their kayaks before the orca sighting off Playa El Coyote in the Sea of Cortez, just north of La Paz.

The encounter began after Garcia saw a large splash behind Lynn as the group prepared to paddle back to the beach.

“Assuming that this encounter was going to last only a few moments as the orcas cruised by, Sergio and Terri Lynn paddled quickly to follow behind the orcas and soak up every glimpse,” the summary reads. “Then, to their surprise, they realised that the pod wasn’t actually leaving! They were corralling a group of mobula rays – it was a feeding frenzy!”

Garcia said the paddlers tried to keep a responsible distance but that became impossible as the mobula rays rushed toward the paddlers while trying to escape the orcas, bringing the orcas to the paddlers.

“The orcas used bubble curtains and swam tight circles to keep the rays together and at the surface, and picked one off every once in a while,” the summary reads. “Rene saw a half-bitten ray floating by shortly after the feeding ended.

“The whales fed for about 10 minutes, then, apparently satiated, let the remaining rays go and turned their full attention to us.”

The orcas made repeated passes in what seemed expressions of curiosity, and remained with the paddlers for another 10 minutes before disappearing to the south.

One of the females in the pod, identifiable by a deep notch at the base of her dorsal fin, has been spotted elsewhere in Mexico and was once documented preying on a sunfish off the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Eastern Tropical Pacific killer whales are encountered sporadically and have been spotted as far north as Southern California.

Orcas play with stinging sea jellies, the question is why?

Transient killer whales sometimes play with their food, but they’ve rarely been documented toting jellyfish, or sea jellies, in their mouths

Transient killer whales sometimes play with their food, but they’ve rarely been documented toting jellyfish, or sea jellies, in their mouths.

The accompanying images, captured Saturday by Monterey Bay Whale Watch, show two killer whales, or orcas, carrying what might be the same sea nettle at different times in California’s Monterey Bay.

The extraordinary sightings, from aboard the Point Sur Clipper, marked only the second time in the company’s long history that orcas have been documented exhibiting this type of behavior. (Bigg’s transient orcas prey almost exclusively on marine mammals.)

The sightings occurred after a mother orca and her three offspring had killed sea lions and at one point seemed to deliver a skinned carcass alongside the boat.

“The CA202s, nicknamed the Smileys, hunted a couple of California Sea Lions and then celebrated afterwards!” Monterey Bay Whale Watch boasted on Facebook. “They came over to the boat several times, were bow riding, and one was even playing with this sea nettle! What an incredible experience for our passengers!”

The underwater images are screen shots from video footage captured by Tory Kallman (the video has not yet been made public). They show the youngest orca swimming behind a GoPro camera somewhat comically, with the sea nettle dangling from its chin.

“Right now the sea nettle is questioning every life choice that led it to think a selfie with an orca was a good idea,” a woman joked in the Facebook comments.

The third image, captured by Jodi Frediani, shows an older sibling with the sea nettle looking more like an orange ball.

It’s not known why the orcas carried the jelly or whether it was consumed. But it’s worth nothing that sea nettles’ tentacles contain stinging cells that paralyze their prey – mostly zooplankton, small fishes, larval fishes, and other jellies.

Capt. Nancy Black, owner of Monterey Bay Whale Watch and co-founder of the California Killer Whale Project, told For The Win Outdoors that the orcas most likely were playing with the jelly “like a dog plays with a ball.”

Black added that the young killer whales possibly enjoyed the “tingling” sensation, generated by the tentacles, on their tongues.

The previous such sighting, an event also photographed by Kallman, was in 2009.

Rare white orca passes beneath anglers almost ghostlike

A group of anglers ventured offshore in search of tuna last Thursday, but instead encountered several large orcas and a rare white orca calf.

“No tuna for 160 miles but this was better,” Ryan Corum wrote beneath one of two Instagram videos that show the encounter near San Clemente Island in Southern California.

Viewers will note the close proximity of as many as 10 orcas that greeted the anglers and kept pace with their fast-moving boat.

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Another good one from today! Unreal experience #orcas #killerwhale

A post shared by Ryancorum20 (@ryancorum20) on Aug 20, 2020 at 9:40pm PDT

“It lasted about 10 minutes,” Corum told For The Win Outdoors. “And on the way in about four hours later we spotted them again, 20 miles from the original spot. They were just relaxing on the surface.”

At the start of the top video, when the orcas first appeared, one angler begs repeatedly to kill the engine, prompting the response, “They’re not scared of the boat, bro.”

Frosty the white orca passes beneath boat as angler looks down. Photo: Ryan Corum

The white calf is visible briefly in the top video but plays a prominent role in the second (soundless) video, when it passes beneath the boat almost ghostlike.

The calf, nicknamed Frosty, is part of a family unit of transient orcas cataloged as the CA216s.

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What a experience today! No tuna for 160 miles but this was better #orcas #killerwhales ##catalinaisland

A post shared by Ryancorum20 (@ryancorum20) on Aug 20, 2020 at 9:10pm PDT

Frosty is leucistic and sometimes appears gray, other times white, depending upon the angle of sight and position of the sun.

The calf is about 13 months old and was first documented, as a newborn, last August by Monterey Bay Whale Watch in Central California.

Frosty and the CA216s were encountered at Santa Catalina Island last September by a California Killer Whale Project researcher, so the calf is well traveled.

In fact, according to Alisa Schulman-Janiger, the project’s co-founder, the CA216s have been documented from Vancouver Island off British Columbia to San Diego.

Like other transient orcas, or killer whales, they prey almost exclusively on marine mammals, including dolphins and gray whale calves.

Corum, who was with two fishing companions on a voyage from Newport Beach, said there were at least 10 orcas in the pod. “It was amazing to say the least,” he added.

–Follow Pete Thomas and the Outdoors on Facebook and Instagram

Orca ‘punts’ seal 40 feet in rare event caught on camera

Orca ‘punts’ seal 40 feet straight up in a rare event caught on camera.

Whale watchers off British Columbia, Canada, watched in awe Sunday as an orca used its fluke to fling a seal perhaps 40 feet above the surface.

“They were amazed and excited, and I think they knew this was not something we see every day,” Capt. Andrew Lees, owner of Five Star Whale Watching, told For The Win Outdoors. “I think they knew it was special from my reaction.”

The charter aboard Salish Shadow encountered two transient orcas – a mother and son catalogued as the T10s – Sunday afternoon off Vancouver Island near Victoria. The 21-year-old son is the orca shown “punting” the seal in Lees’ images.

The seal did not survive the landing and ultimately was devoured.

Lees said the orcas also breached and slapped their tail flukes as the predatory event occurred.

Transient orcas prey on marine mammals and are known to play with their food in possible teaching events to benefit younger pod members. Batting or flinging mammals high into the air is a method of stunning or killing prey.

While it’s rarely witnessed, such dramatic events have been documented.

In October 2015, also off Victoria, an adult transient orca catalogued as T69C tossed a harbor seal 70 feet into the air.

That incident was captured on video by a production company, and displayed in photographs by California-based researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who was on the cruise.

“Our highlight was a harbor seal predation by Bigg’s (transient) orcas, the T69s,” Schulman-Janiger wrote. “After three attempts, adult male T69C tossed a harbor seal well over 70 feet straight up into the air – sending it flying among the gulls!” Schulman-Janiger wrote.

Otter fleeing hungry orcas seeks refuge on man’s boat

A man exploring Alaska’s Kachemak Bay on Sunday watched in awe as a sea otter trying to escape orcas took refuge on the transom of his boat.

A man exploring Alaska’s Kachemak Bay on Sunday watched in awe as a sea otter trying to escape orcas sought refuge on the transom of his boat.

John Dornellas, a guide for Coldwater Alaska, was touring a cove inside the bay when he spotted three transient orcas, or killer whales, and otters in the distance.

Suddenly, in an event that Dornellas captured on video, a large otter swam frantically onto the vessel’s transom and momentarily tried to climb onto the deck.

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“This experience was completely by surprise and utterly unbelievable,” Dornellas told For The Win Outdoors.

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The footage shows the otter clearly in a predicament: In the water were three killer whales on a hunting spree, and in the boat, towering over the critter, was a perceived danger in the form of a person.

“Hey, I’m not gonna hurt you,” Dornellas says in the footage. “You’re good. You can chill up here as long as you need.”

Dornellas said the otter waited until the orcas were out of sight before jumping into the water and swimming away.

Sadly, the male orca shown in the video had something in his mouth during his close approach, and Dornellas said it might have been the otter’s calf.

“All conjecture, of course. But definitely a possibility,” he said.

The guide, who was exploring alone, said the male orca was with a female and a calf, and it’s possible they were teaching hunting methods to the calf.

“This is the same transient family that we have seen time and again,” Dornellas said. “The same male orca has approached my boat on multiple occasions, almost going out of his way to come pay me a visit.”

Kachemak Bay is an arm of Cook Inlet on the southwest side of the Kenai Peninsula.

Transient orcas, or killer whales, are encountered from southeast Alaska as far south as Southern California. They prey exclusively on marine mammals.

–Follow Pete Thomas and the Outdoors on Facebook and Instagram

Playful orcas grab spotlight off Cabo San Lucas, Loreto

A fishing captain off Cabo San Lucas has captured rare footage showing an orca swimming alongside his boat with a large fish in its mouth.

A sportfishing captain off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, has captured rare footage showing an orca swimming alongside his boat, beneath the surface, with a large fish in its mouth.

Capt. Jaime Gonzalez of the Pisces Sportfishing vessel Reel Cast captured the footage June 21, when his charter caught and released 12 striped marlin.

“It looks like the orca was showing off a jack crevalle – you can see it swimming with something in its mouth and the captain thought it was a jack because they had seen a big school nearby,” said Pisces spokeswoman Rebecca Ehrenberg.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soiI-nZD6G8]

At 20 seconds the orca lets go of the fish and jumps next to the boat. The footage was captured north of Cabo San Lucas in the Sea of Cortez, and Gonzalez said several pilot whales were spotted in the distance.

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A week earlier, orcas surfed and jumped in wakes generated by a fishing boat operated by Robert Ross, farther north off Loreto. Ross, who provided the accompanying images, told For The Win Outdoors that up to six orcas frolicked in the turbulence.

Orca encounters are somewhat rare in the Sea of Cortez, but sightings sometimes involve the sleek mammals wake-riding behind vessels. Loreto, about 300 miles north of Cabo San Lucas, seems to be a popular hangout.

“I see them 10 to 15 times a year and I always make them play behind the boat,” Ross said. “They love to surf in the waves I make while running at about 14 knots.”

Ross added: “They will only follow you and play with the boat if you go in the direction they’re initially going. If you go the wrong way they will not follow you.”

Eastern Tropical Pacific orcas, or killer whales, have been spotted off Central America and as far north as Southern California.

Rare orca encounter includes salty surprise for angler

Anglers on a charter out of California were surprised Tuesday by orcas that were more than 1,000 miles south of their typical range.

Anglers on a Northern California charter were surprised Tuesday by curious orcas that were more than 1,000 miles south of where they’re typically sighted.

The accompanying footage, captured off Eureka by Capt. Gary Blasi of Full Throttle Sportfishing, shows two orcas approaching the boat, one of them swimming upside-down, as Blasi directs his passengers where to look.

Toward the end of the video clip, a woman peering over the rail receives a plume of orca breath to the face, leaving her startled but in awe.

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“That lady was surprised because she got sprayed in the face by the blow hole,” Blasi told For The Win Outdoors. “Her face was soaked; that’s why I was laughing so hard.”

Blasi said orca sightings are extremely rare off Eureka, adding: “I’ve had the business here for 17 years and have never encountered that. It was pretty awesome.”

Blasi’s passengers observed four Bigg’s transient orcas that are part of a family group cataloged as the TO38s. The group consists of six orcas, or killer whales, plus a female (TO35) that often travels with the family.

At least one other boater also encountered the orcas Tuesday, and it was likely that the entire group was in the area.

According to Alaska-based researcher Emma Luck, the TO38s are the most commonly encountered family group off Juneau, Alaska.

Prior to Tuesday, the TO38s had not been documented in California, according to Alisa Schulman-Janiger of the California Killer Whale Project. (Juneau is 1,291 miles from Eureka, in a straight line.)

The last confirmed sighting, prior to Tuesday, was Aug. 9, 2019, west of Juneau.

The two orcas shown in Blasi’s video are TO38C and TO38D. TO38C is a 12-year-old orca (gender unknown) famous for the distinctive white mark on the right side of its dorsal fin. (See bottom photo.)

The orca’s older sister, TO38A, has an almost identical mark on the left side of her dorsal fin.

TO38A typically travels separately with her offspring.

–Images courtesy of Full Throttle Sportfishing

Paddleboarder surrounded by orcas, reacts accordingly

A man out for an afternoon paddle near Belfair, Wash., found himself surrounded by orcas on Sunday.

A man out for an afternoon paddle near Belfair, Wash., found himself surrounded by orcas on Sunday, and figured that the safest way to brave the encounter was with a low center of gravity.

The accompanying footage, captured by T.J. Thomas, shows the unidentified paddlboarder switch to a kneeling position as several orcas approached for a close inspection in Hood Canal.

Thomas, 38, told For The Win Outdoors that the presence of the orcas that far into Hood Canal is somewhat unusual, and that they might have been attracted by a recent abundance of seals.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wluyW85ISGk]

The paddleboarder can be seen standing when the orcas are distant, but he squats when they’re close, presumably to avoid falling into the water.

Thomas said he counted at least six orcas, or killer whales, while capturing the encounter with his drone.

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Alisa Lemire Brooks, Whale Sighting Network Coordinator for the Orca Network, told For The Win Outdoors that the (Bigg’s) transient killer whales likely belong to a family group cataloged as the T65As.

Transient killer whales, unlike the region’s salmon-eating Southern Resident killer whales, prey on seals and other marine mammals.

Hood Canal is a natural waterway that splinters from – and is part of – Puget Sound. It separates the Kitsap Peninsula and the Olympic Peninsula. Belfair is at the end of Hood Canal.

Brooks said that while Hood Canal is not a top spot for transient killer whale sightings, the Orca Network receives reports from the waterway every year.

In 2018, she said, the T65As spent most of April in Hood Canal. In 2005, she said, a pod of transient orcas spent four months in the canal, feasting on seals.

Thomas said he captured the footage after 3 p.m. from his parents’ house. Thomas also produced a longer YouTube video that includes images captured by his father, Joe.