Approximately FORTY storm petrels greeted us on arrival to the Hotspot this morning, not \u201cthe most ever seen in the canyon\u201d but certainly a great sight! The orca had already devoured breakfast but it didn\u2019t hit the spot as they continued to forage. El Notcho and Cookie\u2019s pod were busy and extremely uninterested in us so rather than motoring around them we decided to go find a different pod!<\/p>\n
Not too far further along the contour line was Razor, calf Blade and their BFFS (very scientific orca terminology). These whales shot over to us as soon as we were in eye sight and buzzed around the boat greeting us! Nibbles and Digby were off in the distance leading the dispersed pod west. We were on the trailing end and had the curious calves playing around with us. A pirouette spy hop was the highlight as Blade and Shepp, followed closely by their Mums, raced past the boat, tumbled through the waves, pushing and shoving each other – seemingly daring to get closer to the boat. The mums couldn\u2019t let the youngsters have all the fun and they too joined in on the action by running in to a helpless sunfish, pushing it up and out of the water! After each play they would try catch back up to the bulls who were busy seeking out prey.\u00a0<\/p>\n