June 8th 3:30 PM - T086A's & T124A4's by Lantzville
This afternoon we were cruising around the Salish sea and came upon our pods of orca: the T086A’s and T124A4’s. They treated us to a mesmerizing sighting full of spy-hopping and we got to experience them hunting!
Orca have sharp conical teeth on both the top and bottom of their jaws. These teeth can be up to 4 inches long! They do not use these teeth for chewing but to capture and tear their food. That being said they have the ability to use these teeth with almost surgical precision. Orca off the coast of South Africa have been documented hunting and eating the most feared shark, the Great White! The scientist who performed the post-mortems on six sharks that happened to wash up on the shore of Gansbaai noted how they had been “physically ripped open in a precise and refined” way. The orcas prefer the liver of the sharks due to their rich fatty content. The orcas had torn the sharks skin below their throat cavity allowing the liver to slide out. Scientists believe the orca are able to dine with such accuracy due to their ability to echolocate. They do this by bouncing high-pitched clicking noises off of objects under the water to form a picture, much like a sonar. It allows the orca to “see” the sharks internal organs with sound. Even though our transient orca do not hunt great white sharks, they use this same method to hunt their prey consisting of harbour seals, sea lions, porpoises, dolphins and even other large whales.
Check out the photos by marine naturalists Cheyenne Brewster and Janine Van Der Linden taken during this trip below!
T086A Eider. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T124A4 Sabio. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T086A3 Tyndall. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
T086A3 Tyndall. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Spyhop! Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.
Our Open-Vessel Cascadia with Westcoast sunset in the background. Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.
Photo by Janine Van Der Linden.
Stellers Sea Lions enjoying the sun on the ODAS buoy at Halibut Bank! Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.
Photo by Cheyenne Brewster.