A pod of seven orcas swam right up inside Humboldt Bay at Eureka. That itself is a rare story. While there, they did some foraging.
Not only did they swim inside the bay, they went quite some distance inside, past the U.S. Coast Guard station.
Naturally, this created quite a stir around town and lots of people flocked to the shore of the bay to take pictures, shoot video,and tease each other about shoving questionable friends into the water.
So, this became a well-documented orca visit.
The critters of Humboldt Bay were even more quickly alerted and nervous, for good reason.
Everything from a bat ray to a sea lion felt the stress of the reality of orcas between them and the entrance to (or at the moment, more importantly, the exit from) the bay.
For as long as they chose to stay, those orcas owned the place and neither man nor beast was going to argue with them.
Orcas are busy critters that need something to do. They are smart and resourceful, and they will find a way to make the most of a given situation. And that is how a big bull sea lion got into trouble.
It is very difficult for a sea lion to get away from a pod of smart orcas, so they chose a target bull and herded it right into the jaws of a top apex predator.
Another interesting thing about orcas is that unless they are famished, they like to play with their food, kind like a human kid. Lacking hands, their form of play is to whip captured prey back and forth as their teeth shred flesh, skin and bone. Then the pod may share the pieces.
According to local sources, the pod of orcas only killed one big bull sea lion. That suggests that finding food for immediate consumption was not the primary goal of this bay visit. For a pod of that size, one big bull sea lion is only a snack tray.
The bay holds plenty of sea lions and if hunger were the reason for the visit, they likely would have taken enough to fill their bellies.
Chances are this was a recon visit to assess the food resources of the bay for their use when they need it. While they were at it, they ate one as a quality check and to do something useful for the pod.
A large predator as smart as an orca wants to know where the food resources are and to make periodic inventory checkups. I doff my hat to the leader of that pod because that is one smart and organized leader.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
