Orca Hunt Dolphin, Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand, September 2015

[@aussiegirl1888]

Hi OxTackle, I am a colleague of Catherine Leas and I am trying to get together some of the footage of orca feeding on dolphins in the HG considering it is such a rare event! Is there an email address I can contact you at? Cheers, Krista

[@OXTackle]

+Krista Rankmore Hi Krista. you can contact me at [e-mail]. Thanks. OX

[@catherinelea6004]

Hiya, what date was this on? The whale watch boat I worked for witnessed presumably the same group hunting common dolphins a couple of days ago. This is all very interesting!

[@OXTackle]

+Catherine Lea. Hi Catherine. This was filmed on Sunday 27th of September, East of Tiritiri matangi. We were out on Tuesday as well and Saw the Whale watch boat following the Orca and common dolphins, Gannets etc. I was surprised to see the bottle nose being pursued as it looked to be around 2.5m long and quite large. A small pod had come up to us earlier while we were drift fishing and hung around for two minutes checking us out. I was a bit gutted watching one being hunted down. Hope that helps. OX

[@catherinelea6004]

+OXTackle Hey, thanks for the detailed info! That's very interesting to know as the boat has only ever witnessed orca hunting dolphins twice now in it's 15 year history. I am surprised about the bottlenose too, although we know orca are supreme hunters you would think they would just aim for the easier commons!

[@OXTackle]

+Catherine Lea . Yeah, I know what you mean. We were only sure when we slowed down and paused some of the footage and could see the dolphin more clearly. We also saw a pod of Orca pursuing a Bryde's whale and her calf two years ago in the firth of Thames but got no footage as we aren't allowed to pursue marine mammals. We seem to be lucky in the last week with so many coming to us, although the Orca came way to close for comfort. Thanks for watching the Video. OX

[@catherinelea6004]

Wow I saw the same just off the Eastern side of Waiheke/in the Firth two years ago too...5th August 2013 (the first time I saw orca, I remember it well). I wonder if you saw the same event or a different one! And yeah I can imagine, it's pretty difficult to see everything when it's happening so fast but you guys did a really good job of filming. We can ID for sure that it's a bottlenose which is really interesting. :)

[@Letmeoutltd]

+Catherine Lea That would be very close to the same time. We were east of Kauri point Waiheke, in line with Terahiki Island and the chase continued East into the firth. It was a little to real when we realised what was going down. I always hoped that the calf made it.

[@JacksonBakerFishing]

Hey I witnessed this a couple of weeks ago around the same time. Our two videos were in a newspaper article on stuff and dailymail if I'm correct. Check out my channel to see my epic encounters with orcas!

[@OXTackle]

+Jackson Baker . I have seen the footage you got. Pretty awesome alright. Nice work