A curious apex predator
nature·@thomasjmitchell·
0.000 HBDA curious apex predator
It happens from time to time but not nearly as much I would like for it to occur. Well, here we were on an afternoon expedition in the Gerlache strait at a location called Useful Island, which has an amazing lookout position along the entire Gerlache strait ~ where one of my colleagues was located. As myself and the rest of the team were zodiac cruising and exploring the immediate area my colleague called over the radio that he had located some "black and whites" aka Orca. For me, that is all it took for me to stop what I was doing, get some basic location information and then began heading that direction with keen eyes open. It took a few minutes but not long after that I spotted a large black fin slowly disappear into the calm icy waters of the Gerlache Strait. To be honest, the first time you see this and you are the first one to spot them is somewhat of a rush. After that, you need to hang back and observe their behaviour, keeping your distance and not to interfere with what they natural behaviour. Well, as soon as I was near by their behaviour changed instantly into curious and interactive, as a pod of 20 plus small Type B orca began approaching our small zodiacs, following us and circling around and around staring at everyone onboard. This big guy in the photo (let's call him **Frank**) is a large male orca, easily longer than the 5m | 15ft zodiac I was in decided to follow me around and circle me for about 10 minutes. He had a very distinct notch in the back of his dorsal fin and is now my favourite orca on the Antarctic peninsula. <center>*This is a still from a short video I took with my go pro as he came up from behind me, surfaced right next to the vessel before circling the zodiac twice and continued on with the rest of his pod | family* *** <center> *** All stories & photographs are of my own work unless noted under the picture in question. For more stories and photos check out my [Instagram feed](https://www.instagram.com/thomas_jmitchell/) **Check out my website new website too - [Just BCOZ Photography](www.justbcozphotography.com)**</center>
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