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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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Duncan Murrell - A Whale of a Time

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12 images Created 20 Nov 2014

Orcas

Whenever I encountered humpback whales they provided the icing on the cake on my kayaking trips, but the cherry on the icing was undoubtedly the awesome orcas. I didn’t encounter them as often as the humpback whales, but whenever I did I always knew that I was going to be in for an extreme workout , because they travel faster and farther than the whales, sometimes covering up to 200 miles a day, compared with my greatest distance of paddling 30 miles a day. Their blows are very distinctive, being more shrill and piercing than the explosive guttural blows of the whales, so I could always tell when they were approaching. On average I could expect to have 3 or 4 good encounters with orcas, and it was usually with transient pods hunting for other marine mammals comprising fewer members than resident pods that concentrate on areas where there is an abundance of salmon or other fish. I remember the trepidation that I felt when I first kayaked with orcas, but any fear was soon dispelled when I realised that their only interest in me was purely out of curiosity. In fact the orcas always seemed to be much more interested in me than the whales apart from the juveniles. Sometimes curious bulls with their huge dorsal fins towering above them would swim directly towards me as if they were going to slice me in half, which accelerated my heartbeat, and then on the verge of impact turn on their sides and slide just beneath my kayak.
During the 1980s photo identification established that there are three stocks of transient orcas that frequent Alaskan waters: one from Prince William Sound through the Kenai Fjords; one in the Gulf of Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Bering Sea; and the West Coast transients stock which occurs between Southeast Alaska and California. An estimated transient 218 orcas occur in the waters of Washington State, British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska. The northern resident stock, which occurs from Vancouver Island to Southeast Alaska, has a minimum of 216.
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  • I took this photo from the deck of my sailboat Avalon rather than from my kayak. Trying to keep up with orcas in a kayak is an entirely different proposition, especially in difficult sea conditions against the wind and tide; that is an extreme workout!
    Southeast-Alaska- orca1.jpg
  • Based on differences in their lifestyles and food preferences, orcas are characterised as "resident" and "transient". These are transient orcas that were probably hunting for seals up in the glacial inlets of Glacier Bay. Transient orcas generally form smaller and more variable social groupings than residents, roam over a larger area of the coastal waters, and their appearance in particular places is not so predictable. They feed primarily on sea mammals such as seals and sea lions. The name "killer whale" probably stems from observations of transient orcas hunting.<br />
Resident Orcas.<br />
"Residents" are more predicatable because they frequent the same areas where they have a regular source of food in the summer and fall. They feed on salmon, live in close and extended family groups (matrilines and pods) and are highly social. Families can be distinguished from one another by their dialects.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca2.jpg
  • This was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. It was a beautiful day that started well when I encountered a group of playful sea lions. They were inquisitive as always and hung around for quite a while. Most of them eventually swam away but one very inquisitive big bull remained with me for a while. It circled me and dived down beneath my kayak so that it could look up at me: then suddenly it erupted out of the sea right in front of the bow of my kayak, and there was the sudden jolt of eye-contact with his big bulging wild eyes that penetrated deep within my primal being. He then swam away and I continued paddling out to the middle of Seymour Canal. Then suddenly I heard a commotion in the distance, and when my eyes homed in on the source I saw the tell-tale dorsal fins of orcas, and then to my dismay I saw my friend on the surface near them: he was being attacked! I frantically paddled out towards the developing melee and wondered what I should do, and even contemplated trying to rescue him. But of course nature had to run its course, and I had to be grateful that I had a ringside seat for such a dramatic wild spectacle, as the orcas continued to ram the sea lion at high speed: I could see an orca cutting a confused furrow of water before colliding with its quarry in a big explosion of spray. The sea lion then reappeared at the surface gasping for breath, which tugged at my heart strings so much that I wanted to intervene, but there was a hungry family of predators that had to eat. Eventually it failed to resurface and it was all over...... but it wasn't because a pod of humpbacks happened to stumble onto the killing stage and they too were attacked by the orcas. I paddled right alongside the conflict and observed the whales rolling onto their sides and flailing their flippers to try to thwart their attackers. The orcas eventually gave up and disappeared along with the whales leaving me all alone highly charged and shaking with adrenaline.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca3.jpg
  • Encountering orcas was a much rarer event than being with the humpback whales in Southeast Alaska so I always viewed it a special treat and a bonus for the summer. I always felt like I had to shift up into a much higher gear with the faster swimming orcas, and I usually knew that something out of the ordinary was going to happen. Most of pods of orcas I encountered were small transient pods specializing in hunting for marine mammals. On this occasion I was able to paddle many miles with a very large pod of at least 30 individuals that spanned the width of Chatham Strait. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the sea was calm without a puff of wind, which always makes it a bit easier to keep up with them. They appeared to be hunting for salmon by corralling them judging from the way their speed and direction changed periodically. It’s fascinating listening to the extensive chatter of orcas; they are much more vocal than the humpbacks and can produce a great range of sounds from clicks, squeals and whistles to what sounds like someone knocking on a door. The most memorable thing that happened on this day involved some young calves, which like the humpback calves were very inquisitive about me. I had just stopped for a rest and was observing the behavior of some of the orcas swimming past. Suddenly two calves popped their shiny black heads out of the water right next to the cockpit of my kayak! They were chattering away at me with their squealing and whistling, and after greeting them with a very surprised “hello’, my next instinct was to pat them on the head like puppies, but they disappeared before I had the chance to do that. <br />
I never ever felt threatened by orcas, even when the big bulls would sometimes swim straight towards me, and they would twist sharply at the last minute just before their tall dorsal fins could slice into me. I’m quite sure that they were only ever inquisitive about me.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca4.jpg
  • Orcas are so sleek and hydrodynamic, and so consummately evolved for speed and distance. I always marvelled at how they slide through the water with such effortless ease, barely creating a ripple: even the surface tension of the water appears to stretch over their head like a second skin. An orca's dermis (skin) is smooth: the outer layer continually and rapidly renews itself, and the old skin sloughs off. The increased skin cell turnover increases swimming efficiency by creating a smooth body surface which reduces drag.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca5.jpg
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  • Southeast-Alaska- orca7.jpg
  • The sight of a big bull orca powering towards my kayak would seem to be very intimidating, but after many encounters with them I was very confident that they had no interest in me other than curiosity. I had several palpitating encounters with bulls that seemed to be on a collision course with me but just at the very last moment they veered underneath my kayak and turned on their sides to avoid hitting me with their towering dorsal fins.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca8.jpg
  • Southeast-Alaska- orca9.jpg
  • This photo was used by Athena International for a poster in the late 1980s. It was cropped into portrait format with ORCAS in bold white lettering at the bottom.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca10.jpg
  • Orcas have many of the same behavioural characteristics on the surface as humpback whales, and possibly for the same reasons. I didn't observe orcas lobtailing or breaching as much as humpbacks. It's quite likely that this orca was lobtailing to herd salmon, just as humpback whales do to shock and herd shoals of herring into bays or along a shoreline.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca11.jpg
  • Orcas have many of the same behavioural characteristics on the surface as humpback whales, and possibly for the same reasons. I didn't observe orcas lobtailing or breaching as much as humpbacks. It's quite likely that this orca was lobtailing to herd salmon, just as humpback whales do to shock and herd shoals of herring into bays or along a shoreline.
    Southeast-Alaska- orca12.jpg