Orca in Wellington Harbour, Dec 5 2011

Mid morning on Monday 5th December, a number of orca were seen in Wellington harbour and the bays around Balaena Bay, Little Karaka Bay and Oriental Bay.
Sometimes called 'Killer whales', orca are a toothed whale belonging to the dolphin family and are found in all oceans, from the cold Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas.
This footage shows orca hunting and feeding on (foodsharing) stingrays. Some of the orcas can be clearly identified as Miracle and her calves Merlin and Magic, and Funky Monkey. Another orca which often accompanies them (but is not clear in the footage) is A1, who has the top of their dorsal fin missing.
Stingrays and eagle rays can be found in Wellington harbour and the bays in the summer months, and orca come in to hunt them.
Much of this footage was shot on the head of land between Oriental Bay and Little Karaka Bay, and Balaena Bay. There are less than 200 orca around New Zealand waters.
Credit: Dave Allen, NIWA. Thanks to Ingrid Visser (The Orca Research Trust) for providing information on orca behaviour.
For more information, see:
The Orca Research Trust orcaresearch.org
The Encyclopedia of New Zealand: Orcas teara.govt.nz/en/orcas/

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They are as curious about us as we are about them.. beautiful creatures... they are us! 👍🇳🇿