Tuna was on the minds of the anglers on Galveston Party Boat’s The New Buccaneer and Capt. Matt Smith as they traversed the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico on a 30-hour offshore trip March 201. But that changed quickly as Smith and Capt. Sam Hardeman spotted a pod of orcas.
Yes, killer whales-about 100 of them, in fact.
“I’ve been fishing out in the Gulf since I was a kid, and I have never seen anything like that. It was an incredible sight,” Smith said.
Check out the footage filmed from The New Buccaneer here.
Officials with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said there is a small, resident population of orcas in the Gulf, but they are rarely seen due to living far from shore.
“It was an awesome experience, definitely once in a lifetime kind of thing,” Smith said.
“They came up to the boat like dolphins do, surfing in the wake and jumping off of the bow.”
Orcas are seen on television, typically feeding on sea lions, seals, and even penguins. None of those are present in Gulf waters, but there is plenty of fish.
“I assume they are all eating the yellowfin tuna we’ve been catching. Either that or they are eating bluefin. The last few years we’ve seen a lot of bluefins this time of year,” Smith said.
There has been some debate as to whether orcas existed in the Gulf, so I thought this was worth sahring.
Seldom mentioned in media, Gulf waters are rich in marine mammals. Although many of them are rarely seen by the public (like orcas), their conservation is important to the Gulf ecosystem’s overall health.
According to NOAA, 28 different species of marine mammals are known to occur in the Gulf of Mexico. All 28 species are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), and six are also listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (sperm, sei, fin, blue, humpback, and North Atlantic right whales).
Even I must admit, this technically knocks the great white shark out as being THE apex predator of the Gulf.
It stings a bit as a shark fan but it’s amazing to think killer whales prowl Gulf waters.
Chester Moore
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