Orcas on the hunt ... for the perfect wave

Surfers at Sandy Bay were joined by a pod of orcas, upsetting foreign tourists concerned there could be a bloodbath.
Northern Advocate photographer Michael Cunningham was at the beach yesterday at about 8.30am to go body surfing. He was in the water for an hour when he noticed a line on the surface out to sea. "I couldn't work out what it was and thought it was another surfer."
But when a one-metre-tall fin popped out of the water and started heading towards him and other surfers, Mr Cunningham decided to head ashore. "I didn't have anything to sit on and with most of my body under the water, it felt a bit freaky." The other surfers had stayed at sea unfazed by the visitors.
After catching a wave Mr Cunningham had noticed the orcas had caught a wave behind him. He said three or four orcas were riding waves and they were accompanied by a calf. Once ashore he was approached by a concerned English tourist in her 60s who had been watching the orca with binoculars. She had wanted to know why the other surfers hadn't come ashore too. "I explained to her there's been no recorded human deaths from orcas in the wild and she realised they weren't that dangerous."
The pod had initially approached Sandy Bay from the north and swum up and down the beach before picking the best waves, Mr Cunningham said. "They knew what they were doing and pulled out before getting into trouble. They looked like they'd done it before."
Northland's marine mammal expert Ingrid Visser said surfers were safe around orcas as the mammals were there for the same thing - to go surfing and have a good time. She could tell they had been getting as much of a buzz out of it as the humans because adult males, usually stoic members of the group, would "cavort" like youngsters, racing around at full speed.
People thought orcas were called killer whales because they killed people but they killed other whales. Orcas learned how to eat and hunt particular food from their social peers. Those in Canada and Norway hunted fish, but they caught them using different techniques. In Canada they plucked them out of groups but in Norway they hit them with their tails and picked them up one by one. Orcas in Papua New Guinea and New Zealand hunted sharks, Kiwi orca karate chopping them with their tails but those from Papua New Guinea just biting them. "Part of their culture is they've never learned to eat humans, but that doesn't mean it won't start."
Orcas were still top predators to be treated with respect.