Orcas Hunting Seals

We all know Orcas eat seals. How far do seals go to escape and how far do Orcas go to catch them.

This, I believe, was shot off Vancouver Island. A friend forwarded it to me. Pretty cool.

That video is a metaphor for so many things but alas one thing is clear. In the never ending debate regarding single vs twin propulsion this seal at least is firmly in the twins camp.

Now and then Orcas would chase seals into Thorne Bay (near Ketchikan) and the end of the bay is almost right in front of the town. They would teach the pups how to catch the seals by wounding them and tossing them around. Dosn't last long. Soon there are seal parts and blood and frothing Orcas dining out. Bloody mess. Didn't happen often. I haven't seen it but am passing along the sumation of the many stories around town.

Our experience is to see many more Humpback Whales than Orcas is SE AK but in places it may be otherwise.

CPseudonym said:

That video is a metaphor for so many things but alas one thing is clear. In the never ending debate regarding single vs twin propulsion this seal at least is firmly in the twins camp.

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that. It is interesting to see.

It is my understanding that both the Northern and Southern resident killer whale populations feed exclusively on fish, primarily salmon. The transient populations feed exclusively on mammals such as seals, sea lions, porpoise etc... So in this video, these would appear to be a group of transient whales.

I wish that our Southern resident population would branch out into mammals. We have a LOT of harbor seals. I wouldn't mind trading some seals to improve the viability of the Southern resident population. I think there are just under 90 individuals in that population and about 220 in the Northern resident population.

CPseudonym said:

That video is a metaphor for so many things but alas one thing is clear. In the never ending debate regarding single vs twin propulsion this seal at least is firmly in the twins camp.

Click to expand...

Bet the little feller doesn't even care what kinda anchor is hanging off the front end either.

A few years ago a transient pod of Orca came through Puget Sound and a few of them cam all the way into our little bay (Liberty Bay) here in Poulsbo. They were definitely seal-eaters and took three seals right off the break water here at the Yacht Club. One of our members got some pictures.

Marty........................

A few years back we were staying at a floating fish camp just outside of Port Hardy. We were having dinner outside on the deck which is just 2x6s nailed to the logs the make up the float part of the floating lodge. The killers came into the bay chasing seals... about a half dozen seals hopped up on the deck where we were the rest went under the floating lodge to the shore. The whales went after the shore bound seals, some made it some didn't. The whales going after the seals actually rocked the lodge... the seals on the deck and the group I was in had a Mexican standoff for about 3 minutes before they decided to leave.... The KWs are the apex predator for a reason...