A phantastic day with the Orcas

Allways when you think it can not be better life has a surprise for you. It was like this today. We arrived 3 hours before high tide at Punta Norte and found Ingrid Vlisser very excited....“ the girls are in the channel „



What does this mean?

The girls are the female of the Valdez Orca pod. And when the girls are around there is a show down at the beach.
Mel is a huge Orca male and very heavy and not too fast. But the girls are much smaler and very fast. They hunt together and very efficient.

So we went to the attack channel as fast as we could. From fare 6 blows could be seen.Ingrid identifyed them as Mel and his partner Sol, and the girls Maga, Valen and Mica...and the last year born Issy, the latest Orca baby was around.


Issy playing



Issy with the mother

It took us 2 minutes to sit down and prepare our leses when Maga was the first to shoot out of the water, taking a sea lion pub just 10m in front of us. I was impressed because i have never seen the girls hunting in this way.













The show continued and 4 Orcas where hunting together. For to train the younger animals they kept the pubs alive and transported them to the deeper water where the jouveniles could play with the sea lion pub.
The pub tryed to swim back to the beach and each time short before arriving the shore one Orca came to transport it back...A cat and mouse game. It seems to be cruel for us...but in Orca life ist an important training for the yougs to learn the hunt.

Luckily I got a shot with Maga and Valen hunting together at the beach. Valen, the left animal cought a pub just to throw it up into the air, while Maga took her prey back to the water.


March 19th 2009, Punta Norte

What a day. We are blessed to be here and enjoy this show. It is a previlege to be so close to Orcas and this is one of the few spots in the world where it is possible to look so close into the life of this wonderfull creatures...

Frank