This is a very short post to share the spectacular National Geographic moment we had this morning when a pod of killer whales swam into Arthur Harbor and spent about an hour terrorizing the local seals. Spoiler alert for the soft hearted – they didn’t kill any. It was fascinating behavior to observe; the clearly could have taken the seal in the video at the end of this post (shot by and posted with the permission of Chuck Kimball, the Palmer Station comms tech), but didn’t. Just practicing? Teaching the kids how to hunt seals? Just having fun? Who knows. Everyone ran out onto the dock to watch the action and this definitely caught their attention.
An orca comes in for a closer look at the crowd on the Palmer Station dock.
A large male cruises the ice edge.
Fantastic opportunity to see orcas surfacing to get a good look at their prey. Thank you!