Killers in the Gulf

by: Steve Layton & Gary Finch, Finch Enterprises
Don't forget to watch Gary Finch Outdoors each Sunday morning at 6AM on WTVY - Channel 4 or visit www.garyfinchoutdoors.com

There are plenty of fishermen who make their way into the Gulf of Mexico during the fall months in search of trophy yellowfin tuna. That was also the game plan for the crew of the “Shady Lady” out of Zeke’s Marina in Orange Beach, Alabama.

Capt. Eddie Hall and boat owner Shawn Clemens had already experienced one day of successful tuna fishing. The “Shady Lady” had caught three yellowfin tuna weighing over 100 lbs. the day before and they wanted to introduce their friends to some big-time tuna action.

During the first night of fishing, Eddie Hall recalled that the fishing was terrible. There were no tuna bites and he knew that based on his observations the fish should have been knocking their baits out of the water. On the previous trip, they had only traveled about 90 miles out and done extremely well. Now, they were making an about-face at 140 miles and were headed back home with nothing to show.

The location of the “Shady Lady” was approximately 3 miles south of the “Horn Mountain Rig”. At 92 miles, when the sun came up, the answers to their questions literally began to appear. At 9:00 a.m. Friday morning on Halloween Day October 31st. The tuna were scarce and scattered, and for good reason. The crew of the “Shady Lady” couldn’t believe that they were actually witnessing four pods of killer whales feeding on their schools of tuna!

According to Eddie Hall, there were four distinct pods of whales and each pod was feeding independently of the others. In the smallest pod there were twenty-five to thirty killer whales feeding on tuna. Each of the other three pods had as many as one-hundred members. A pod of whales could cover as much as an acre of water at any time, depending on how many animals surfaced at a time.

The crew of the “Shady Lady” followed the whales for well over an hour and documented every aspect of what they were seeing with video and radio reports to neighboring crew boats that surrounded the “Horn Mountain Rig”. Eddie said the video was rather easy to shoot since some of the whales were as close as one foot from the side of the boat! The captain observed that these animals were not shy or startled by the boat and seemed to be checking things out as they continued to feed.

The crew noticed that the pods remained in family groups, and when two pods approached one another, they did not intermingle but reversed course in another direction.

Capt. Hall stated that he has seen numerous accounts of other species of whales that are common to the Gulf of Mexico. He said it is not uncommon to see sperm whales and their calves as they migrate through the Gulf Stream waters. He has also seen the rare accounts of whale sharks, but this is the first time in 13 years of fishing that he has ever seen a killer whale in the Gulf of Mexico. According to Eddie Hall, “My crew didn’t see just one killer whale they saw well over two-hundred.”    

Gary Finch concurred with Eddie Hall’s comment, and stated that after 30 years of fishing in the Gulf of Mexico he had never seen or heard of killer whales entering the warm gulf waters. He said the video that was presented from the “Shady Lady” has since been authenticated by Dr. Keith Mullin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as being video proof that these animals were definitely killer whales and the video established them as being in gulf waters.

Dr. Mullin revealed that the NOAA research vessels and aircraft had documented sightings of killer whales in the Gulf of Mexico in small numbers. However, this new video of multiple and large pods of killer whales represents an event that has peaked everyone’s interest. He and his colleagues would be carefully reviewing the video in order to record, identify, match, and track individual animals for future sightings.