Orca encounter

The other day we had a pod of Orca come into the Queen Charlotte Sound.  From the jetty we could see them on the other side of the sound. Grabbing the kids we jumped in a boat and headed out to get a closer look. Every season we get jellyfish coming into the Sounds, the stingray come in to feed on the jellyfish and the Orca come in to feed on the Stingray (at least that’s what I have been told).

You can tell the difference between Orca and dolphin mainly by the towering dorsal fins and by the fact that they are much less playful and more purposeful. The  little pod we were watching consisted of a mother and two calves. They cruised along the coast stalking (stingray?) and we followed gently behind them. Other boats soon noticed and came over to investigate as well.

I was really impressed at how respectful of the whales everyone was. Boats hung well back out of the path of the whales direction of travel, no one got closer than 50 metres. The fact that I don’t have any decent photos to support this blog is evidence of the fact that our boat didn’t actually get all that close.

It is very easy to see how it could go wrong. Getting too close would simply chase the whales away, disrupt their feeding and discourage them from returning to the sound. The respect we show these amazing marine predators (some of the largest predators we are likely to see in New Zealand) directly relates to the chances our children have of seeing them in the future.

Rob MacLean