Three unexpected orca sightings in one week in September
by firmm Team
Text: Leonie (volunteer at firmm), photos: firmm
Some just fall silent in awe and admiration. Whether it’s their intriguing appearance, social family groups led by a matriarch or their ability to learn, explore and play, something about them captivates us. They stir something deep in everyone who is lucky enough to witness them.
So it was no surprise that when the crew on the firmm Vision found out that the Iberian Orcas were back by the fisherman boats just off the coast of Morocco near Tangier in September, there was no question about going there. And we were lucky enough to see them three times within the space of a week.
The orcas hadn’t ventured into the strait much this year, the team at firmm had already stated that it was very unlikely to see orcas during trips at this time. The three hour ‘Orca trips’ had ceased and the boats weren’t going to the underwater mountain range which is where the orcas are usually sighted when they come to the strait. However, on 10th, 13th and 14th September, they were reportedly seen near the fisherman boats just off the coast of Morocco - a pod of orcas, mainly females with their young, some juveniles and just one young male.
You can tell the males from the females because they have a much higher and pointed dorsal fin, the female dorsal fins are rounded off and much shorter. And you can also recognise a juvenile male, because their dorsal fin is still fairly short, but nevertheless pointed. Adult males’ dorsal fins can grow nearly two meters in length, depending on the size of the animal.
During July and August is the most likely time to see them in the Strait of Gibraltar where they come to the underwater mountain range to hunt and feed on the bluefin tuna. Bluefin tuna swim from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean in the spring to spawn, swimming near the coast with the currents. Once they have laid their eggs, they return to the Atlantic. On their return to the Atlantic they swim further away from the coast and pass the underwater mountain range near Tangier, Morocco. At this point the strait is only around 200-300 meters deep (the deepest point of the strait is nearly 1000 meters deep), so the more shallow area near Tangier, which the sailors and fishermen of the strait call ‘la Baja’ (‘the shallow’), creates a good spot for fishermen from Morocco and Spain to fish for the tuna. And not just for the fishermen. This spot is exactly the place for orcas to come and hunt for tuna but also make use of the fishermen. The orcas are regularly observed swimming around the fisherman boats and rather than hunting the tuna themselves, they will wait until the fishermen have caught the tuna and swim underneath the boat to steal the tuna off the hook. I have been shown photos of the fisherman with just the head of the tuna left to pull up from the depths
Diving and hunting for tuna costs energy, so presumably waiting for the fishermen to catch them, spares the orcas a lot of work.
The orca pod was not our usual group with identified orcas ‘Camorro’ and ‘Matriarch’, but the pod of orcas from Barbate. Katharina and José, firmm’s marine biologist believe that there could be different reasons for the orcas to come to feed in September. It was always the same group on all three trips and they were under water for a lot of the time, which is most likely because they were there to feed and there were mainly females with their young, so possibly they were teaching the juveniles how to hunt for tuna in 'la Baja’ and teaching them the tricks of the trade and how to use the fishermen to their advantage to find the food they need without wasting much of their own energy. The young were staying close to the adults and we even saw one orca with tuna in its mouth.
Another possibility is that there had been enough food available near Barbate during July and August, which is why they weren't sighted so much this year. So possibly they returned now because there wasn’t enough food elsewhere, so they were seeking the help of the fishermen.
None of the visitors on the boat knew that we were going to find the orcas, so as we approached the underwater mountain range on all three days, and
People started to get very excited and there were mutterings among the visitors about what we might be seeing. And then, there they were, the unmistakable black and white pattern, the dorsal fins and the rounded blow - the exhale of these incredible creatures. As always it was a beautiful spectacle to see these majestic intelligent animals in their natural environment and an absolute privilege to be allowed a momentary insight into their world. Thank you.
