November Social Gathering: “The Ocean’s Apex Predators >> the Orca” (expired event)

When:        Thursday, November 14 at 7:30 pm

Where:       Busselton Senior Citizens Centre          

Speaker:    Jade Cantrall

Topic:  The Ocean’s Apex Predators – the Orca

Jade Cantrall is a marine biologist who works with Naturaliste Charters.

In the Dec to April period each year, Naturaliste Charters conducts boat tours to the Bremer Canyon from the small town of Bremer Bay in the Great Southern region.

The Bremer Canyon is a unique deep water ecosystem that has proven to be one of the few locations on the planet where offshore orcas can be regularly encountered. Every year the canyon becomes home to the largest known group of orcas in the southern hemisphere.

This remote area of the coast of Bremer Bay transforms into a hot spot abundant with spectacular marine wildlife between January to April.

In a small geographical location 50km from shore and several nautical miles over the edge of the continental shelf large aggregations of the most esteemed apex predator are consistently observed in addition to long-finned pilot whales, sperm whales, giant squid, and numerous species of sharks and beaked whales. A wide range of oceanic bird species are also prevalent in the area.

Jade will describe what researchers are discovering about the canyon, in particular the behaviour of the orcas.