A famous killer whale family has returned to delight whale watchers in the Eurobodalla this week.
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The well-known matriarch “Split Fin”, her life partner and what may or may not be their offspring were spotted off Narooma on Tuesday evening.
Skipper Nick Ingersole of Narooma Charters was conducting a penguin tour of Montague Island when he spotted the pod.
The female had a distinctive damaged dorsal fin, split right down the middle, although it looked to be an old injury possibly sustained when she was younger.
The female had a distinctive damaged dorsal fin, split right down the middle, although it looked to be an old injury possibly sustained when she was younger.
Whale researcher and compiler of the Australian Orca Database, David Donnelly was excited to see the photos of the pod.
Mr Donnelly conducted his first research trip off Eden exactly 20 years ago and continues to be involved in research most recently tagging humpbacks off Eden for the University of Queensland.
He said the female killer whale was first spotted in 1996 as an adult and so is believed to be at least 30 years old.
She was considered to be the matriarch of her pod that usually numbered anywhere from six to 15 individuals, and she was also known to be with the same alpha male all these years.
Her range extended as far north of Jervis Bay and as far south as the Derwent River in Tasmania, but there had also been sightings in Port Phillip Bay as well as off Eden and Mallacoota.
While her pods movements were loosely tied to the humpback migration, her pod had only been seen feeding on a humpback calf once and that was off Green Cape at Eden.
She had been documented feeding on school sharks and the activity described off Narooma on Tuesday was not unusual and she could have been feeding on fish such as kingfish or salmon, he said.
Mr Donnelly said it was fantastic to get another sighting of “Split Fin”.
She was last seen with a calf in 2005 and she could now be too old to be still breeding, with orcas believed have a life span of around 90 to 100 years.
“Hopefully she has got a few years left in her,” he said.