Rarely-seen dolphins spotted off Sydney’s northern beaches
VIDEO: Beachgoers have been treated to three rarely-seen dolphins, which resemble killer whales, frolicking along Sydney’s northern beaches.
Manly
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BEACHGOERS have been treated to three rarely-seen dolphins frolicking along the northern beaches coastline.
The pod of false killer whales — which appear similar to killer whales, but are smaller and have no white colouring — have been spotted as close as 100m offshore each day between Sunday and Tuesday.
“It’s a wonderful sighting,” ORRCA (Organisation for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia) spokeswoman Shona Lorigan told the Manly Daily.
“We generally tend to get one false killer whale sighting a year (in NSW).
“It is quite unusual.”
Ms Lorigan said the creature is “not quite as bulky” as the killer whale and grows to about six metres long.
“It’s a wonderful thing to watch them forage and explore our waters,” she said.
The beautiful animals have been spotted at Narrabeen, Shelly Beach, Long Reef and Dee Why during their stay.
Cromer’s Mick Eady was lucky enough to capture photos of the dolphins at Long Reef while he was snapping pictures of his daughter surfing.
“I saw a dorsal fin come out of the water but I wasn’t alarmed because I knew it wasn’t a shark,” he said.
“We (Mr Eady and his wife) thought they were orcas.”
Mr Eady’s photo shows one of the three false killer whales less than 100m behind a beachgoer.
Others, out on boats, were lucky enough to film the creatures.
Jamie Thomson was lucky enough to get footage of one (above) breaching the water.
False Killer Whale
●The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service’s Wild About Whales website says, like orcas, false killer whales are a large species of dolphin.
●Male false killer whales are larger than females and can grow as long as 6m and weigh up to 2.2 tonnes. This compares to 4.5m and 1.2 tonnes for females.
●Long and slender with elongated heads and dark grey or black bodies, they are often referred to as “blackfish”
●False killer whales have a much smaller and curved dorsal fin compared to orcas
●They can live for up to 60 years.