Orca hunting and chasing Antarctic Fur Seals

This encounter was pretty damn sweet!! We spotted these guys just a few miles away from Deception Island, where we had been visiting in the morning. Shortly after lunch we spotted them from a distance and before I knew it we had dozens of black and white fins surfacing on all sides of the vessel. Then to make this encounter even more amazing we could see that the orca were playing with and chasing a group of fur seals.

The pod of orca were being followed by a few small Wilson Storm Petrels too, which suggested there was at least one killed and eaten whilst we were observing them. The petrels enjoy any scraps that the orca do not eat, which float up to the surface.

It didn't take long to realize they were just toying with the seals. Herding them in various directions that the orca wanted them to go. I do know if they wanted to kill them, it would be over in seconds BUT the orca seemed to enjoy slowly playing with their food.