Type D Orca on the way to Elephant Island

Please note, not all of these pictures were taken by me. There were a lot of really excellent photographers on the trip, and some of them very kindly shared their best photos. Where possible I have attributed the picture taker, if it wasn’t me or Maaike.

I don’t know much about Orca, except that they’re not whales but actually a dolphin. Anyway, Type D are apparently the rarest, and we had the most exceptional viewing of them while en route over very calm seas to Elephant Island. Did I mention yet how lucky we were with the weather? ;)

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Those pictures were all mine, but, like I said, other passengers with better skills, and often better hardware also shared their pictures. These next pictures all came from a passenger called “Rick”, and this one is probably my favourite, here uploaded in full res.

Type D orca - Rick

And these are some more of his pictures.

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It was amazing, about 70 odd Orca, in about 5 family groups they think. Only the 17th “confirmed? sighting ever. We were with them for, oh, an hour or so. It was a magic part of the trip, everyone was buzzing for days after. Many thanks to Rick for sharing his most excellent photographs.

Quite the Christmas present!

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