Wow...have a read of these fantastic tales from our naturalist Cathy Harlow who is currenty guiding in the Lofoten area of the Norwegian Fjords. Although the appearances have been late this year, last week huge shoals of herring appeared, closely followed by some hungry Orcas!
Here's Cathy's update:
"As we pulled out of Skutvik harbour, it was trying hard to sleet. On board MS Leonora spirits were high as we had just heard that great shoals of herring had swum in overnight off Henningsvaer in Lofoten. And then the news that we had dreamed of came through – huge numbers of orcas were there too. It was full steam ahead for Leonora as we laboured through the swell of the open fjord to get there. As the first blows came into view the excitement mounted and all of a sudden we were surrounded by orcas. Whatever direction your eye travelled, there were fins and blows but then the action stepped up. A young orca breached three, or perhaps it was four times in succession right by our boat, hurling itself backwards out of the water. As every camera focused on that awesome event, another started up just in front of the zodiacs. What followed can only be described as pure undiluted magic – breaches and spy-hops galore to one side, while on the other a young orca just wouldn’t stop tail-slapping, to the delight of everyone on board.
As well as just getting completely absorbed in this exuberant display of orca antics, we were trying to gather some useful recordable data. This was clearly more than one group, so two or perhaps even three were there as there were definitely 50 or more orcas around us. They didn’t appear to be feeding as there weren’t any signs of herring in the immediate area. Perhaps they had finished feeding and were socializing after a really satisfying meal? Certainly, quite a few happy whale watchers came home last Wednesday."
Well Orca watching is definately on my "to do" list! If you fancy orca watching in Norway, you can find out more here.


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