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I Captured Orca Feeding!

Finally! After waiting almost two years, it finally happened. I got to shoot some Orca or my preferred nameof Killer Whales yesterday from the air.

I’ve shot Southern Right Whales twice and dolphins too many times to recall but the Kings and Queens of the sea have always escaped me.

Saturday the 27th Of August about 10am we first spotted them when we were skimming but they never came close enough. Later that afternoon about 4pm at Waiwera some people turned up at Waiwera very quickly and were pointing out to sea like there was something. Bingo! A quick sprint back to my ute with a sprained ankle and the drone was in the air.

It was a quick showing just by the island and I was only over them for about 10 minutes until I lost them. It wasn’t until I got home that I got to see exactly what I had captured. If you know anything about Orca hunting methods you would know that they do like to eat Stingrays and what I captured is what appears to be a particularly large example on the menu.

Check out the video below and a few bonus snaps down the bottom

First up in the sequence of stills is this one. See the Orca to the bottom left, he (or she) is fishing up the ray)

Orca 3 blog

These next two are 4K frame grabs with the meal being served on the nose of the Orca

Orca 2 blog Orca 6 blog

And moving on, it wasn’t long after this I lost them

Orca 5 blog

Very very happy with the results as you can imagine and I will be passing the footage onto DOC and the Orca Research Trust.

See you at the beach!

-Sam