Killer whale breaches in the waters off Bremer Bay. Photo courtesy Naturaliste Charters.
Why do more than 100 gather off Western Australia every year?
A Flinders University researcher has finally fathomed why large numbers of killer whales gather at a single main location off the West Australian southern coastline every summer.
Physical oceanographer Associate Professor Jochen Kampf.
In a new paper published in Deep Sea Research, physical oceanographer Associate Professor Jochen Kampf describes the conditions which have produced this ecological natural wonder of orcas migrating to the continental slope near Bremer Bay in the western Great Australian Bight from late austral spring to early autumn (January-April).
Scientists have revealed the answer to the mystery of why hundreds of killer whales flock to one small bay each summer.
Up to 300 killer whales feed in and around canyons offshore from Bremer Bay, on Western Australia s south coast, between January and April, by far the biggest annual appearance of the animals in the country.
Their presence is so reliable that a tourist trade has flourished in the area - which this season caught the brutal and extremely rare sight of a huge orca pod hunting and devouring the world s biggest animal, a blue whale.
Killer Whales flock to Bremer Bay in Western Australia, along its south western coastline in unprecedented numbers each summer. Now scientists have a better understanding of why they are there
Credit: photo courtesy Naturaliste Charters, WA
A Flinders University researcher has finally fathomed why large numbers of killer whales gather at a single main location off the Western Australian southern coastline every summer.
In a new paper published in Deep Sea Research, physical oceanographer Associate Professor Jochen Kampf describes the conditions which have produced this ecological natural wonder of orcas migrating to the continental slope near Bremer Bay in the western Great Australian Bight from late austral spring to early autumn (January-April). The aggregation is connected to the local marine food web that follows from the upwelling of benthic particulate organic matter (POM) in a confined region near the seafloor plateau near the head of the Hood Canyon, says Associate Professor Kampf, from the Flinders University College of Science and Engineering.
Clue to killer whale cluster
A Flinders University researcher has finally fathomed why large numbers of killer whales gather at a single main location off the Western Australian southern coastline every summer.
In a new paper published in Deep Sea Research, physical oceanographer Associate Professor Jochen Kampf describes the conditions which have produced this ecological natural wonder of orcas migrating to the continental slope near Bremer Bay in the western Great Australian Bight from late austral spring to early autumn (January-April).
“The aggregation is connected to the local marine food web that follows from the upwelling of benthic particulate organic matter (POM) in a confined region near the seafloor plateau near the head of the Hood Canyon,” says Associate Professor Kampf, from the Flinders University College of Science and Engineering.