Orca-Adventures

by firmm Team

Text: Luisa Listmann, Volunteer for firmm; Pictures: firmm

It has almost been a week without seeing Orcas. The fishermen had not seen any either. But then on Wednesday evening we received a call from the tuna fishermen that Orcas had been with their boats during the day! So we had to change our plans and head out to look for Orcas. And what surprising days we were going to have….

Friday 3rd of August

It was Melanie’s and Manuela’s dearest wish to see Orcas. Today their wish was going to be granted. We headed straight to the Pateras (the Moroccan fisher boats) in front of Tangier when we left Tarifa. Even before getting there we were lucky to see a Fin whale! When we arrived at the fishermen it did not take long to find the Orcas and therefore could stay with them for a long time. It was great to see them again after so many days.

Orca Familie

Saturday 4th of August:

After the successful day yesterday we were excited to head towards the Moroccan coast this afternoon. Unexpectedly we came into very dense fog (in our office in Tarifa they were already worried that we had to come back to the harbour). Despite everything Katharina went on towards the fishermen. We really saw very little, fog was all around us. Even the Fly Blue, our second boat following closely behind us was not visible anymore. But after a while we started to slow down as we had arrived at the Pateras.

Fly Blue im Nebel

Now everybody on the boat was in demand, we were all scanning the foggy horizon. And then….not even 50m from our boat they emerged! How lucky, we had found the Orcas under (as Eduardo said) worst possible conditions. The Orcas delivered an impressive show: they caught one tuna after the other; pulled fisher boats after them; ate next to our boat so we could actually see the tuna in their mouths. Great!

At some point we got away from the fishermen and the other whale watchers and followed a group of Orcas. It was ghastly quiet, the dampness of the fog on the skin and silence was everywhere. Puuuff….puuufff….puuff…. two females and a baby Orca came up just in front of our boat! That was a real goosebump-experience.

Orca im Nebel

Sunday 5th of August:

In the morning it was already difficult to find animals. The pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins had travelled far towards the Mediterranean Sea. Why was that? Orcas? At 3 o’clock we started with Jörn on the Fly Blue to look for Orcas and indeed we found them with the fishermen. Their presence must have driven the other animals away; it is known that pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins avoid the hunting grounds of the Orcas. The fishermen had already many tunas on their fishing lines, there were also many red buoys visible with tuna on them. They are left there to be taken out of the water at a later point in time. The animals suffer when they get caught on these lines at a depth of 200m for hours. Many tunas die a painfully slow death this way.

Orca mit Boje im Hintergrund

While we were following a family of Orcas towards the Atlantic Jörn spotted a buoy far away from the fishermen. It must have drifted off and got forgotten. To make sure that there was not a poor tuna caught on the line we approached the buoy. Pedro, our sailor on board, went to the stern, caught the buoy and stared pulling up the line with confident movements. We were all watching intently; even the Orcas were visible at a distance: fortunately there was only the bait and weight to be found on the line. Especially Jörn lookedrelieved!

Monday 6th of August:

Thismorning turned out to be difficult as well to find animals. Thus we were already excited to see how it was going to be on our 3-hour orca trip. And sure enough the Orcas were with the fishermen. It was nice to be with them for quite some time, especially the babies were charming. With this trip we had not seen the orcas for the last time. Two more times we were surprised with Orca sightings.

Spielender Orca Orca mit Thunfisch

On our last trip we drove full-speed against the waves because at the horizon Orcas had been sighted by Eduardo. And we found them. Despite the high waves they came quite close to the boat. At the end we let them swim away into the sunset. Our trip was crowned with success by a group of playful and jumping striped dolphins.

Orca Familie zieht von dannen

So many different sightings of Orcas in such a short time are just great and make every trip an adventure full of surprises!

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