The unpredictable ORCAS!!!

Text: Katharina Heyer
Photos: firmm

The number of people who wish to see orcas is very high, and it is increasing every year.
We have known for several weeks that the Spanish fishermen from Tarifa are NOT catching tuna this year because the tuna quota from Spain is already exhausted as a result of the extensive tuna fishing with Almadraba nets last spring, and the government has decreed to halt their fishing.

Now it will be much more difficult to find the ORCAS this year if we now have to look for them along the whole Moroccan coast. Of course, it had been much easier also for the orcas to "serve themselves" close to the Spanish fishermen, beyond the submarine mountain. The orcas will now have to develop a new strategy - which these intelligent marine mammals will certainly do within a short time. How much time we humans will need to see through their strategy again is another question.
After Jörn accidentally discovered the orcas for the first time on July21, we began planning 3-hours ORCA excursions.

The fact that our competition did not find them in spite of extensive searching for hours was not really encouraging. But in spite of everything we went out towards the west on July26 with 3 guides aboard. We changed direction very close to the Moroccan coast going east with the current to the place we had seen them from time to time in the past few years. After a very short time we saw a high blow that couldn't come from a pilot whale. Then, the dorsal fin of a large ORCA male appeared.

We could hardly believe that we had discovered them. Of course, there is always a lot of excitement aboard when we sight orcas. The 11 orcas we spotted contributed to an unforgettable experience.

The sighting chances were only about 50% at the beginning. Since then, we have seen them on several trips so that the chances of finding them are now about 98% as in previous years.