Orca shares the waves with local surfer

Gisborne's Wainui Beach is well known for its waves, and the competition among surfers for Gisborne's waves became unusually fierce this week.

At one stage a surfer feared for his life and opted to give up his wave to a rival with a far bigger fin - an orca.

"The fin was there, and it popped under, and it's other fin came up the side," surfer Michael Smith says. "It went underneath me, I was just like, 'I'm going to die.'"

However Karl McLeod from the Department of Conservation says the surfer was safer than he thought. There has never been a single fatal orca attack on a human in the wild.

"Orcas are very curious, highly intelligent and really social animals," Mr McLeod says. "So it's unsurprising that we have a number of encounters around the country, divers fishermen and stuff like that. Having said that, catching a wave with an orca right beside you, that's pretty exceptional."

Orca have been around since prehistoric times. They are sometimes known as the wolves of the sea, because they hunt in packs. However, if you happen to find yourself in the water with them, the best advice is tobut if you do happen to find yourself in the water with them, the best advice is to leave the area quietly, but not too hastily.

Orcas make rare visit to Port Angeles Harbor

PORT ANGELES — A pod of three orcas made a rare trip Tuesday afternoon into Port Angeles Harbor, trailed by about a dozen boats of whale watchers.

The marine mammals arrived at about 2 p.m. and were headed back into the Strait of Juan de Fuca two hours later.

Observers on land called the Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles and the Port Angeles Police Department, concerned that the boats had driven the orcas into shallow waters or had trapped them there.

But Coast Guard Operations Specialist 1st Class Ian Banks said the crew of a helicopter that was detoured over the area saw no boats within the 100-yard no-encroach zone set by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

A Coast Guard patrol boat also was sent to the area off the Rayonier pier to enforce both the no-encroach zone and a 400-yard no-wake zone that requires boats to reduce speed.

Hunting fish or seals
Most, if not all, the boats were operated by professional whale tour operators from Canada, Banks said.

Rich Osborne, former director of the Whale Museum of Friday Harbor, now a Clallam County employee, said the orcas could have been hunting fish or seals.

"In either case, they were probably exploring," he said.

Osborne said orcas observed on the Strait side of Ediz Hook probably are hunting fish.

Closer to shore, they may hunt weaner harbor seals, animals newly independent of their mothers and easy prey for orcas, also called killer whales.

Orcas are either fish eaters or marine mammal eaters, according to Howard Garrett of Whidbey Island, co-founder of Orca Network.

Garrett said a pod of orcas had been spotted near Port Angeles on Saturday and near Dungeness Spit on Thursday.

Banks said that, besides staying 100 yards from an orca, observers should approach them only from the side, not from in front of them or behind them.

He said this warning, and more cautions about observing orcas and other marine mammals, can be found in the pamphlet, "Be Whale Wise."

It and other information about orcas can be found at the Orca Network Web site, www.orcanetwork.org.

The site includes both a link to report orca sightings and accounts of recent sightings, plus links to photos, books and other marine mammal organizations.

Killer whales reported in Bay of Fundy

There is a report of unusual visitors to the Bay of Fundy—killer whales.

Gordon Wilson, deputy clerk with the Municipality of Digby, N.S. was watching a large group of dolphins heading up the bay on Sept. 2 past his waterfront home at Culloden when a large black fin emerged from the water.

“All of a sudden there was a big black fin. I said that looks like a killer whale and sure enough he came up again.”

Wilson grabbed for his binoculars but the next sighting showed the whales about 300 to 400 yards offshore.

He notified marine animal researchers in Halifax and found there were sightings earlier this year of killer whales off the Eastern Shore and the crew of an East Pubnico boat fishing for halibut on the Scotian Shelf in March reported a solitary whale eating halibut off their fishing lines.

Andrew Hebda, curator of zoology for the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History, told Carla Allen of the Yarmouth Vanguard, that the predatory mammals eat fish, marine birds and a large array of marine mammals, from seals and sea lions to dolphins and whales.

“We hear of the occasional sighting, but haven't heard of any in the last couple of years. There have been sporadic reports throughout the North Atlantic including northern Europe,” said Hebda.

The museum has a tooth from an orca stranded on Sable Island in 1972, and a report of another stranded in the Minas Basin in 1950.

Wilson also notified a Digby-based whale-watching firm that raced out to the Bay, but was unable to find the killer whales.

Killer whale pod attacks gray whale mother and calf

A mother grey whale moves through the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean, her calf at her side.

In the distance, a menacing pod of orcas heads intently towards them.

And then the bloodshed starts. These shocking images show how killer whales will stop at nothing to get their feed - even if it involves attacking their own kind.

The orcas, which weigh about six tons each and measure up to 26 feet, take it in turn to ram headfirst into the calf, almost knocking it out of the water.

Other killer whales leap on top of the young mammal, trying to drown it.

The brutal attack, which took place off the coast of California, in Monterey Bay, lasted an hour and a half before the orcas succeeded in killing the calf.

The predators continued to devour his 20ft body underwater while his mother swam to safety.

Any remaining blubber that floated to the surface was swiftly swooped on and eaten by seabirds.

The attack was one of about 20 that occur in Monterey Bay every year when the grey whale calves and their mothers migrate 6,000 miles from their winter breeding grounds in Baja, California, to Alaska for the summer.

Every year about 15 calves fall prey to killer whales, which lie in wait as they cross the bay's deep canyon.

There are about 20,000 grey whales in the world and although they are not considered an endangered species, wildlife experts are concerned about their numbers.

Killer whales are one of the most predatory species in the world and eat other large mammals including dolphins and seals - and even great white sharks.


They will not usually attack humans, but have injured handlers at marine parks

Killer whales seen off South Coast Australia

A pod of killer whales has made an appearance near Montague Island, sparking hope the creatures may have put the area back on their itinerary after many years' absence.
Three females and a male sporting the distinctive extra-large dorsal fin were spotted 500m off the island last Thursday.

Senior Batemans Marine Park officer Julian Brown said the sighting was the second in as many years after a long hiatus.

"In recent times killer whales have become infrequent visitors to the NSW coast, due in part to a reduction in their prey from historic whale and seal harvesting," he said.

"It is the first time I have seen killer whales in the wild and I feel exceptionally privileged.

"They would have come from the Southern Ocean - they tend to prefer the colder water.

"The water at the moment is quite cold and there's a lot of seals so that's probably why they're around."

Mr Brown called on the community to report killer whale sightings to the Marine Parks Authority.

Thursday's sighting follows the discovery near Eden last week of a humpback whale carcass thought to be the mother of the euthanased orphan calf Collette.

A spokesperson for National Parks and Wildlife Service said DNA tests linking the carcass to the calf were continuing.