indian yellow-nosed albatross Archives - Chris de Blank Photography

Bremer Canyon Killer Whales

El Notcho, Male Killer Whale

I spent a wonderful day last weekend out on the water, south of Bremer Bay, in the area called Bremer Canyon. This is a hot spot for Killer Whales and it’s still unknown to many West Australians. Our tour with Naturaliste Charters started at the Bremer Bay Boat Harbour at 8.30am. We left the coast with some incredible skies which stayed with us for a few hours.

Then the first of the mammals arrived, an escort from a pod of Common Dolphins. They were along side of us and also a number at the bow just keeping ahead of us. This is the first time to my knowledge that I’ve seen Common Dolphins, it’s usually Bottlenose that I’ve come across.

Then it happened, just as we were approaching the area known as Bremer Canyon, we had our first Killer Whale sighting.

The next couple of hours we were kept busy with many Killer Whales coming and going all around the boat. A kill or two was made. The Flesh-footed Shearwater are always ready to pick up any leftovers and the odd squawk could be heard around kill time. They are usually silent at sea and noisy in their colonies.

A little bit of breaching and tail slapping was happening. A couple of times we had one dive under the boat and come up the other side right in front of our very eyes except of course I had my camera in the way and she was just too close and too fast to photograph. After that I made sure that I put the camera down for a while and just enjoyed watching all of the activity.

It’s possible to identify every individual Killer Whale. The size and shape of their saddle patch (the grey area behind the dorsal fin) acts like a finger print. Also the size and shape of their dorsal fins and any scars they may have help with a quick ID. A male dorsal fin is taller and more triangular than the female.