Orcas feeding on mackerel in Norway: Another new discovery in the Vestfjord!🫍

We found two groups of orcas socialising, playing and mating not far from Bodø in the Vestfjord of Norway. Watching them, taking notes and pictures and collecting sound recordings (that is how we study whales in Ocean Sounds), we saw them feeding in between the social actions. The pictures later revealed that they were actually feeding on mackerels!

This is the first time we could document orcas feeding on mackerel in Norway and it fits our earlier observations in 2011 of orcas feeding on salmon. See our publication “First record of killer whales (Orcinus orca) feeding on Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in northern Norway suggests a multi-prey feeding type Heike Vester and Kurt Hammerschmidt. 

Again it shows how flexible orcas can be when it comes to food and they seem to be more opportunistic than in other areas in the world, for example North-West Pacific. This gives hope in very fast changing world🩵