The Orca’s Diary

Text: Ursina Burkhard, according to Katharina’s notes, Photos: firmm

30th of July 2011

The first orca sighting of the season! Three female orcas visited the local fishermen in the Strait of Gibraltar.

On this topic a detailed Blog is already available.

Female orcas

31st of July 2011

After we set sail, we meet the „Guardia“, the guards of the Strait of Gibraltar. Each year we are amazed that the biggest and strongest pilot whales (Franzfin, Baby Hook, Popi, Fernando, Sierra, Carpeta, Manchita and Gatita) gather to defend their territory against the orcas.

We met an excited, almost aggressive group swimming back into the Mediterranean. We assumed that those animals had put the orcas to flight shortly before. We quickl set our target for the Atlantic Ocean where the orcas had already scattered. We had to search a long time, and just before we wanted to turn around, we found them – 13 orcas – making everybody aboard very happy.

Orca pod

2nd of August 2011

We drove straight to the Guardia and we met them far in the Atlantic Ocean (near the Spanish fishermen). On our way we crossed other pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins.

When we reached the fishermen, the orcas appeared shortly after! We were able to observe how a Moroccan fisherman could only pull the head of a tuna out of the water. Indignant and angry, he beat on the surface of the water. Understandable if we consider that a tuna is worth of 2000. - Euro.

It was a fight between man and sea mammal, and the orcas were the winners!

Fischermen and tuna´s head

Orcas and pateras

3rd of August 2011

Around 12 o‘clock we left the port of Tarifa with our two boats. We headed straight to the underwater mountains. The sea was very quiet, and therefore we made quick progress. Already during the first 3o minutes we met a lot of common dolphins which we accompanied for a while. But afterwards we continued our way to the Spanish fishermen where we also saw a lot of waiting Pateras (Moroccan fishing-boats).

Eduardo discovered them very quickly – the orcas! Again the impressive Camacho and the matriarch of the family were with them, as well as a calf. Altogether we found five adult animals plus one pup.

Camacho and patera

Matriarch of the pod and calf

Shortly after we were witnesses of an incredible natural spectacle! A Moroccan fisherman had a tuna on his hook; he worked hard, pulled the fish up, and lowered it again to get the animal to tire out. The men aboard became hectic because only 50 meters away the orcas appear. We saw how the orcas, swimming in direction of the Atlantic Ocean, were pulling the small fisher boat behind them. They also wanted to get the tuna for themselves, so they just dug their teeth into the tuna and continued swimming. The whole orca family was busy dragging the tuna on the hook. The whole spectacle lasted for half an hour. For us it was quite easy to follow the orcas because when the small fisher boat stopped, the orcas stopped there as well, and when the boat continued on, the orcas did the same.

Orca and patera

It is a long fight and the orcas were the winners! To the fishermen only the head on the hook was left ...

The orcas shared the booty. It was an incredible natural spectacle which today we were able to observe for the second time already.

Thanks to our experienced crew which knows exactly how the fish behave, we were able to inform the passengers in four different languages about what was going on.

4th of August 2011

13 orcas! Among them Camacho and some calves. There was also a new born calf whose “white” spots were still yellowish.

Mother with newborn calf

We were impressed by how they hunted and ate all together!

The weather was very good the past several days. and the water clear.

5th of August 2011

Again we were searching for the black and white giants between the Spanish and Moroccan fishermen with our two boats. We were successful! All of them appeared,, split into two groups.

A Spanish fisher boat approached the firmm Fly blue; they showed us a head which the orcas had left on the hook.

We continued our way until we reached the firmm Spirit near the Camacho. And suddenly! – An orca jumping (breaching) three times vertically out of the water!

6th of August 2011

Again we pulled out with the two boats in direction of the orcas. We did a large-scale search throughout the whole area. Even before we met the Spanish fishermen, the firmm Fly blue found Camacho, together with the old matriarch and a young orca. At the same time the firmm Spirit ran into a scattered group of 5 orcas hunting tunas, and surprisingly without fishermen nearby.

Again we could see orcas jumping out of the water.

Fischermen with tuna

7th of August 2011

Due to the change of ebb and flow at midnight which happened from Saturday to Sunday, the fishing conditions today Sunday were very disadvantageous. Therefore we did not do an orca tour, as the chances that the animals would be in the Strait of Gibraltar today were very slim.

8th of August 2011

After the orcas couldn’t count on the fishermen working yesterday Sunday, they had to return to the Atlantic Ocean today to hunt there by themselves.

We had to search long time and could not find the animals today. This was our first unsuccessful orca tour.

But we were lucky to cross the path of pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins and striped dolphins.

Strong Levante was forecasted for Tuesday and therefore tours to the Strait of Gibraltar were not possible during this time. We wondered if the orcas would come back after the next change of winds, and where they might be now.

Ventral sight of fluke