Pod the t-orca the town

Whale watchers played a game of cat-and-mouse as a pod of hungry orcas swam back and forth along the Whangarei coastline yesterday.

The whales were first spotted on Tuesday in the Bay of Islands and on Wednesday had moved to Mimiwhangata.

By yesterday quite a crowd had gathered on the Whangarei Harbour between Taurikura and Urquharts Bay - all clutching their cameras and hoping to get a good shot of the mammals.

As the whales glided along the coastline, the engrossed humans hopped in and out of their cars, slamming their brakes on at various points to jump out and take photographs.





Tourists and locals, whale researchers and roadworkers, nature photographers and inquisitive passers-by all jostled for space as the pod of 17 orcas dipped and dived under the glassy water.
"I bet the whales are wondering what all the fuss is about. They're probably saying: `What are all these people looking at?'," said one keen spectator.

The orcas had come in to feed on stingrays but the wily prey knew they were targeted for dinner and hundreds clustered close to the shoreline hoping to avoid the great orca jaws.

The stingrays drew the whales closer to shore - at one point two orcas hurtled towards a wooden jetty at Taurikura crowded with whale watchers, swerving only at the last moment.

The enthralled crowd gasped as the orcas playfully showed off the size of their stomachs as they curved around the jetty and swum out to sea.

Whangarei orca expert Ingrid Visser said the pod was made up of 17 whales, including two baby calves less than two weeks old.

"I don't know what it is about orcas that makes them so mesmerising to people but once you start watching them it's addictive. They're absolutely phenomenal creatures, they could eat sharks for breakfast so maybe it's their sheer size that makes us find them so incredible," she said.

And Ms Visser couldn't resist taking a dive with her old friends. "Anzac's here, who was first spotted on Anzac Day 2005. There's Nobby who I've known since he was a little boy in 1992. There's Slean, and Miracle and her calf Magic. Miracle stranded in 1993 but was saved so it just shows how we can help."

While swimming with the whales, Ms Visser found a one-metre wide ray that had been half-eaten by an orca. "There are fewer than 200 orca living around New Zealand so to have them swimming around in the Whangarei Harbour is pretty amazing."