F.I.N.T.A.S.T.I.C part 2!!!
Today started as a `regular` day and turned out to be one of the days, where I say I have never seen something like this before. It was fascinating <3
So to start. In the morning we found a fishing boat and nearby there were a few orcas swimming around it slowly.
They were spread out and not feeding anymore.
There was a very young calf playing around the boat for a little while.
It must have had a lot of herring before because it kept floating on its side…The mother was always nearby.
At the beginning I honestly thought that the calf is not OK, but after 20 minutes it dived with its mother and left the area.
We had the idea that this was just some sort of `my belly is full` behaviour, that is how it looked like all in all.
A little snowstorm hit the area and 3-4 orcas started to swim towards north. We decided to cruise next to them slowly.
There was a very young calf (might be the same as the one playing before) with the group.
It was swimming next to a fully grown male during the whole time. It was so amazing to see the bond between brothers.
Probably the older brother took over to babysit the little one to help his mother. Orcas do really have very strong social bonds.
We were just cruising next to this small group already for 10-15 minutes when all of a sudden they started to speed up. Really speed up.
Out of nowhere there were not just the 4 orcas were next to us, but we were surrounded by 20-30 orcas all rushing somewhere.
All of them were porpoising together, even the baby one, jumping and rushing to somewhere.
We kept up with them and after 25 minutes of swimming with full speed, sometimes as fast as 12 knots / hour we reached to a place where were a lot of seagulls.
They must have sensed / heard that another group of orcas (actually quite far) were feeding and that was the reason all started rushing.
I tried to make some good shots of these powerful movements, but nothing could give back the real experience when 20-30 orcas rushing literally 2-3 metres away from the boat. Some even went behind the boat to enjoy some bubble bath. Magnificent creatures.
Right before we decided to head back to port, we also got well treated by some stratospheric clouds. A truly mesmerizing natural phenomena <3
Enjoy <3
-Krisztina
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